Following Up and Following Through

One of the biggest killers of sales is a salesperson who is terrible at following up on things they promise to do for a potential or existing client. They don’t get back to the client when they said they would. They don’t return a phone call ASAP. They don’t get the client the information that they said they would, in a timely manner. This article will focus on how to make Following Up and Following Through a tremendous asset to your sales ability, while improving your sales results dramatically.

The first step in becoming a more professional salesperson in this Critical Success Factor (CSF) of sales is to recognize you need to focus on improving this because the bottom line results to your sales increase for the year will be sizeable when you do. Following Up properly and in a timely manner also offers us as salespeople, the opportunity to under promise and then WOW our existing and/or potential new client by over delivering (i.e. we tell them we will have that information for them or that material for them no later than such and such a date and time, we make sure that is OK with them, and then we knock ourselves out to deliver well before that promised date and time).

There is another step to professionalizing your sales efforts, once you master Following Up and that is learning how to Follow Through properly. What’s the difference you say? Well, Following Through is doing more than is expected of you when you Follow Up. It’s that simple. For instance, let’s say a potential client asks you to get them some additional information you do not have readily available for them at the time and they seem likely to buy, but they need more information. You sense the emotional urge to buy is definitely there, but now they need to accomplish some due diligence to justify their emotional urge to go ahead with the sale.

First you tell them when you will get that information to them, whatever the means you and they chose to make it happen. Then you tell them a date and time that is a little longer than you know you can get this information back to them (i.e. the under promise and over deliver process is being set up at this point). Next, you get a verbal OK from them that your promised date and time (sometimes just a later time that day). When it comes to information—such as… “You know, I do not have that technical information but I know the exact person who does. It appears to me you feel comfortable with going ahead with this purchase once you get more information, right? (Trial Close) Great, I can have that information for you no later than 4:00 pm today. Will that be OK?” Once you get the verbal agreement, ask them if there is any other information you can get them at this time to help them in their decision (this keeps you from constantly chasing your tail again and again by getting them one thing, then another, then another).

Now you go to work and beat your promised deadline by a significant amount of time and you do it at all costs. Then once you deliver it, you Follow Through by contacting them within a reasonable period of time and (1) make sure they got it and (2) make sure you are readily available to clarify anything within that information and (3) share with them some new information since you and they talked. (4) Finally, finesse your way into a time when you and they can meet again to culminate the agreement. Many times at that point they have told me over the phone they are ready to go ahead with the deal.


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Mind Programming and Cognitive Dissonance

I was first introduced to Cognitive Dissonance in the 1980’s when I also was introduced to Neural, Linguistic, Programming or NLP. The person who introduced these fascinating realities of the conscious and subconscious mind to me for the first time is the well-known, worldwide author and seminar presenter, Tony Robbins. This piece I have prepared will briefly cover Cognitive Dissonance. NLP is far more involved and while the definition is relatively easy, grasping and utilizing it fully is not. Therefore, in order to get a good start on the comprehension of the benefits of understanding and utilizing Cognitive Dissonance in your personal life and business careers, I will give you my definition or interpretation of what CD is.

Cognitive: (This is when you are concerned with obtaining accepted and proven knowledge through the process of reasoning, intuition and your perception.) Seems simple enough so far, right?

Dissonance: (This is when your mind is in disagreement with authority or the prevailing opinion.) Now we are getting somewhere because all of us have been in this position on one or more things throughout our lives. And depending on our personality, we may be a very dissident type person. Tony Robbins says the ultimate dissident person is called a Mismatcher. This is someone who basically disagrees with anything people say. He will say “black is white” when everyone else agrees it is white, or “up is down” when everyone else agrees it is up.

“Hey great Stan”, you say, after hearing the above definitions and then trying to put them together to make some sense… “Can you boil that down into some kind of simplistic explanation for me and show me why I need to know about this CD stuff?” Absolutely, in fact, it is not as complicated as it might first appear. In addition, it is well worth knowing and understanding when you do, because it will help you move to the top.

Here is an explanation using an analogy. Let’s say you have found out by reading books and articles, and by attending seminars, that in order to greatly improve your sales bottom line, you must discipline yourself everyday and every week to work on obtaining totally new business, as well as mining and cultivating your existing and past clients for new business. After hearing this message repeatedly, you are now thoroughly convinced you must be doing this in order to be a top 5% person in your particular field (if not at least in the top 15%). So now, you have established a cognitive belief and it is anchored into your conscious and subconscious mind.

However, as time passes, you forget to do this for one or more days, or for an entire week. To compensate for this behavior, something weird starts to happen. While you are cognitive that you should be doing this kind of proven behavior, you begin to come up with good, solid reasons why you just could not get around to doing it. Your conscious and subconscious mind goes to work full time to protect you because, you had bought into this proven belief and now you have to reason to yourself as to why you must be dissident. What actually occurs then is you begin to negate fully what you really do know to be a truism. Eventually, if you do not reverse this protective, but totally incorrect thinking process, it will permanently hurt you.

What is the solution? First, you must be aware when you are starting to act dissident to something you previously accepted as a truism. Second, you need to start taking definite action steps to reverse your dissident behavior and focus on what you really know is the correct thing to do (cognitive behavior). Finally, you need to constantly monitor your behavior on the subject you tried to negate, so that you do not slip back into dissident behavior again.

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Assertive Behavior

The way we respond to honest, sincere, feedback is very important to ones’ self-growth, development and success in life. In addition, the more healthy we are in the areas of self-growth, the more we will seek additional honest, sincere, feedback from trusted friends, relatives and co-workers. That is the beautiful part of responding properly to feedback given to us in the second quadrant of the Johari Window. However, if we are not comfortable with honest, sincere, feedback and we avoid it and/or shun it completely, we will shut down our ability to improve our self-growth and be resentful, even revengeful to those who gave us the honest, sincere, feedback in the first place.

Therefore, we must first recognize the improper reactions and responses to honest, sincere, feedback. Next, we need to learn the steps of proper reactions and responses to this feedback and practice them again and again until we are comfortable with them and do them naturally. Again, we are talking about honest, sincere feedback from people we trust. If we do not trust the person giving us the feedback, then we need to go to someone we do trust to get verification and validation to the feedback we received. That is one step most of us will not do (or we do it in such a way as to pressure our trusted friend into sugar coating their response or negating the feedback altogether). Therefore, true feedback may be stifled because we do not want it exposed any further or validated beyond the person who gave it to us in the first place.

Feedback Reaction and Response Alternatives

Improper Reaction/Response.................................... Proper Reaction/Response

1. Resistance and Anger *......................................... 1. Resistance and Anger *
2. Resentment............................................................ 2. Reassessment of the Feedback
3. Rejection.................................................................. 3. Reconstruction
4. Repression............................................................... 4. Self Growth
5. Revenge.................................................................... 5. We become healthy and well rounded
6. Retaliation either with Active or Passive Aggression
7. Self Growth is stymied and shut down
8. Further Feedback is avoided altogether

It is interesting to note that the first step on both the Improper and Proper Reaction/Response is the same (i.e. Resistance and Anger). That’s because none of us really like to hear these kind of things because we just do not want to admit them and/or, once we hear it, we refuse to do anything about it.

However, as we learn the Proper Reaction/Response steps and practice them religiously, something fascinating begins to happen, this step begins to diminish and eventually disappear altogether.


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Johari Window Explanation

Two psychologist teamed up to develop a very simplistic way to understand our behavior, how others see our behavior and how all this has a tremendous effect on our life’s potential, especially when dealing with and communicating with others. They did not try to weave into their explanation personality disorders or profiles. They just wanted it to be simple so we could grasp it and use it. One psychologist’s first name was Joseph (Luft). The other psychologist’s first name was Harry (Ingham) so they shortened the title to Johari. They believed information was the currency of business and proper communications was the ability to compound your currency.

The first quadrant, if you look at the visual, is the General Public quadrant that tells us about how others see us and how we see ourselves. For instance, I know you are a sharp dresser and you know it too. Or, I know that you love to hunt and of course, you know that too. Or, you know you have a quick temper and I know it too. Or, you and I know you are good with figures but hate public speaking, etc. etc. These are things you and I both know about you and we would agree on them for the most part.

The second quadrant, if you look at the visual to the top right, is the Blind quadrant that tells us about the fact that there are many things about you that others know and see about you, but you have a blind spot to them (you do not see it and/or will not admit to it). We would also call this a bad breath area of our lives because virtually most people who have permanent bad breath (or medical bad breath), do not know it until it is pointed out to them. Once they are told about it, they either decide to do something about it or not. Obviously, if you did have medical bad breath (vs. onion breath from a hamburger), and to succeed, you needed to socialize with people and communicate closely with people, you would do something about it, so long as you realized the bottom line benefit. In this quadrant, the feedback must usually come from someone you trust. In addition, it must be honest and sincere feedback. Many times people are very defensive in this area of feedback because they do not like to hear these things about their behavior, traits and characteristics.

The third quadrant, if you look at the visual to the lower left, is the Hidden quadrant that tells about your masks, and hidden agenda areas. Usually you know about them (unless they are deep rooted psychological problems that are truly hidden until you seek professional help and reveal them), but you do not want them revealed for various reasons.

The fourth quadrant, if you look at the visual to the lower right, is the Potential quadrant. As we grow ourselves and as we “open up” to others in a relationship (business, personal or otherwise), we expand our potential in life. However, until we seek out honest, sincere feedback in quadrant two and work on improving ourselves in quadrant three, we will stymie our self-growth and relationships with others.
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The Center of the Bible

The next time someone says they want to find God’s perfect will for their lives and they want to be in the center of His will, just send them to the center of His Word.

For Instance…
What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?
Answer---Psalms 117
What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
Answer---Psalms 119
Which chapter is in the center of the Bible?
Answer---Psalms 118

There are 594 chapters before Psalms 118.
There are 594 chapters after Psalms 118.
Add 594 and 594 and you get 1188.
What is the center verse in the Bible?
Answer---Psalms 118:8

Look closely at this verse and ask yourself… does this verse say something significant about God’s perfect will for our lives? So the next time someone says they would like to find God’s perfect will for their lives, and they want to be in the center of His will, just send them to the center of His Word to get started.

Psalms 118:8 KJV
“It is better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in man.”

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Passion and Enthusiasm

“Passion and Enthusiasm combined, energizes your God given Talents.” -John C. Maxwell

“Passion and Enthusiasm combined is the first step to the Achievement of your personal, career, business and life goals.” -Brian Tracy

“The secret to Willpower to achieve what you want in life,
is the burning desire of Wantpower.” -John C. Maxwell


“You must know what you sing about each day, what you cry about each day, and what you dream about each day, if you want to be successful in life.” -Author Unknown

“Passion produces Excellence and is the Foundation for Excellence. Death isn’t the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss in life is what dies in us while we are still alive.” -Norman Cousins

“Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world
is the Triumph of Enthusiasm.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a story about the wise Socrates that has been handed down over the ages about Passion, Enthusiasm, Knowledge and Wisdom.

A proud and disdainful man who knew about Socrates, but did not have any respect
for him, came to him one day and said in a disdainful way… “Oh great Socrates, I come to you for Knowledge.” Socrates immediately saw the shallow young man for what he was and so he led this young man to the sea and took him out waist deep into the water.

“Tell me what you want again?” he said. “Knowledge.” …he responded with a smile. Socrates grabbed the young man by his shoulders from behind and forced him underwater for at least thirty seconds. He then let the young man up and asked him a second time… “What do you want?” At this point the young man sputtered slightly, but he still was not impressed… “Wisdom oh great Socrates.” At which point the philosopher pushed him under water again, but for a much longer time. As the young man began to struggle violently, Socrates let him up and asked him a third time… “What do you want?”

“By now the young man was gasping and coughing and he screamed out… “Air…I need Air!!!” Then Socrates looked at him and said… “When you want Knowledge and Wisdom,
as much as you just wanted air to breath, you will receive it.”

No wonder this has lasted down through the ages. It’s powerful indeed.

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Basic Time Management Rules

1. Always work with some kind of prioritized “to do” list system that is divided into an “A-1” list (the things I must get done this week). Put these off and it will hurt you in some way. An A list (the things that will become A-1’s soon and they are the next most important to do), a “B” list (the things that soon will become an “A” but not this week unless something changes) and a “C” list (wishes and things I can put off and it will not hurt me that much).


2. Keep your “to do” lists together and near you as often as possible.

3. Develop a Project “to do” list whose action steps get pulled into you’re A-B-C “to do” lists, as well as a Long Term “to do” list.

4. Have a fail safe method to record “to do” items if you cannot put them on your list at the time.
5. Have a normal, routine time each day to update your “to do” lists.

6. Computerize your “to do” lists so you do not have to keep rewriting them.

7. Have a proven system to efficiently handle the influx of day to day material and information.

8. Do not let e-mails eat up precious time. Devise a triage system and follow it systematically avoiding any time wasters.

9. Once every Saturday morning, Sunday night or early Monday morning go over your “to do” lists and update them for the coming week.

10. Make sure you build into your schedule family time and social time or it will be squeezed out.
11. Have a date night with your spouse (or at least one night where you spend real quality time together) and follow it religiously.

12. Schedule and devote time to a hobby and if you do not have one, develop one because it is a great battery re-charger for you.

13. Develop life goals that are short (immediate to six months), medium (sixth months to one year), then one to two years, two to five years and finally beyond that.

14. You must have a productive workplace that is conducive of a relaxed, uncluttered environment.

15. Schedule sharp start and stop times for meetings you control with prioritized agendas.

16. If you have people who waste your time, you must come up with an assertive action plan to keep them moving along so you can get work done.

17. Find out when your peak productive periods are in the day and utilize that time to the fullest.
18. Have little rewards built in for yourself when you accomplish great tasks and projects.

19. Focus on doing it right the first time (DIRTFT) but try to avoid being anal or a perfectionists because this will really drive you nuts.

20. Inspect what you expect when you delegate but don’t take the project back and take the time in the first place, painful as it might be, to properly train someone to do the task correctly.

21. Remember, get it done and tackle the biggest ones first early in the morning.


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The Good Wolf and the Bad Wolf

Many year ago an old Cherokee Indian grandfather,decided it was time to take his grandson for a serious talk. As they reached the crest of a hill and looked down upon the valley, the grandfather began to tell this story told to him by his grandfather. “Inside everyone of us is a Good Wolf and a Bad Wolf. We have no choice about it. Both are born within us at birth.

However, as we grow up and become adults in life,we will find that one of these wolves will eventually kill the other wolf and then dominate our lives and the way we treat others.”

The young Indian child looked at his grandfather and asked, “But grandfather, how will I know which wolf will win the fight?” The grandfather smiled and said… “That is quite simple to know. The wolf that will win the fight is the one you feed the most.”
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Tomorrow - by Anonymous

They had decided they would be, all that they wanted to be—Tomorrow.

None would be braver, kinder, or smarter than they would be—Tomorrow.

They would seek out their friend who was troubled and weary, to let them know they called to lift them up, and see what they could do for them—Tomorrow.

Each day they would neatly prepare lists and stack up the letters and notes they needed to write, the calls they should make and the important things they needed to do—Tomorrow.

They even made a list of the people they wanted to fill with delight—Tomorrow.

You see, the greatest of people, they might have been, and the world would have opened its heart to them, if only they had not relied on—Tomorrow.

But in fact, as they went through life and avoided all the things they could put off until—Tomorrow,—one day they realized their life had passed them by and they had not achieved what they wanted to be, because they had never done the mountain of worthy things they had planned to do—Tomorrow.

_________________________________________

“Procrastination happens when we believe we will experience some kind of pain, if we do the meaningful business and personal tasks we should be doing. Procrastination is one of the biggest killers of keeping a person from accomplishing their full potential in life. The first two letters in Goals is “Go”, so as Nike says… ‘Just Do It.’ Don’t put those important things off any longer. Overcome your fears.”

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The Power of 250 Versus 2500

Overview: When you have a sales and/or customer service problem, it is either a crisis where you and the company get hurt, or an opportunity to shine and show your class. Bottom line, word of mouth advertising can make you and it can break you. However, positive word of mouth advertising is no where near as powerful as negative word of mouth advertising. Therefore, you need to constantly be looking for ways to perform significant, positive, sales and customer service events/results, while eliminating negative situations as quickly as possible.

The first study on this phenomenon we are about to discuss was performed in the insurance industry in the late 1950’s. Later studies in the 60’s, 70’s and beyond continued to verify the original findings. Here are the facts:

1. If you perform a significant positive event for someone in a sales or customer service situation, they will directly and indirectly reach out to about an average of 250 people total, within one year, with this good news about you and your company. This is also known as the positive Word-of-Mount ripple effect. That of course is the wonderful power of positive Word-of-Mouth advertising, and it cost you nothing.

2. However, there is a dark side to this Word-of-Mouth advertising. If you perform a significant negative event for someone in a sales or customer service situation, and do not take care of it immediately, they will directly and indirectly reach out to about an average of 500 (or double) the number of people, within one year, with the bad news about you and your company.

3. However, it gets worse: These studies proved (as has my own personal consulting experience) that people will readily embellish on negative events and stories far more than on positive things. In fact, the power of 500 begins to expand about 20%, every time it is passed along. Your sins are therefore unfairly exaggerated with each passing, but you are not around to defend yourself. Because of the compounded effect, in many cases, the power of 500 ends up being about the negative effect of the power of 2500!!! Therefore, using those numbers, it would take ten Power of 250’s just break even with the one Power of 2500. That fact should get your attention big time.

4. The action plan to avoid the dark side of this negative power is simply this: Concentrate on under promising and over delivering significant, positive events every chance you get. Teach everyone in your company to be aware of negative situations that might come up, so that they can be isolated, jumped on quickly, and fixed permanently. Have those Power of 250’s building up daily with clients, in a Power of 250 bank, so that when a Power of 2500 somehow slips by you and festers for a year or so, you have such a wealth of significant positive events in your sales and customer service Word-of-Mouth messages, you will not only survive it, but thrive from it.


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Papa Bear Bryant’s Words of Wisdom

(from the movie: "Nothing But A Winner")
Overview: “Papa Bear” Paul Bryant won more football games in his 35 years of coaching than most college football coaches would be able to win in two or three lifetimes. He was recognized as one of the greatest football coaches of all times and his players and fans idolized him at Alabama. While he did not create that many All American players, he did create over thirty head coaches in his lifetime and many of those coaches played against him before he passed away in the early 80’s. His last motivational film produced in 1983 was called… “Nothing But a Winner” and I used that film in my seminars for many years until it became a little too dated to use anymore. However, after having watched that film hundreds of times, I was able to pull over 100 different words of wisdom and concepts from that movie which will never be dated. Here are some of the key ones:

1. You must learn from your experiences.
2. Review your past performance, then build on the good things and eliminate the bad.
3. You must maintain a permanent, positive attitude if you want to be a great one.
4. Enjoy contributing to the team effort every chance you get.
5. Always study why you win far more than why you lose.
6. You are going to make mistakes along the way so don’t be afraid of doing so.
7. Great teamwork makes and excellent team and separates it from an average one.
8. You must focus on being special and being different.
9. Build around you a group of winners who synergize the tream.
10. Always be honest and fair to people and treat them with the greatest respect.
11. Always praise in public and when it is serious, criticize in private.
12. Remember the personal needs of people and their personal lives.
13. Praise far more often than you instruct or criticize and people will listen to you.
14. As a leader, you must learn how to delegate properly and not dump on people.
15. Allow everyone you possibly can to be a part of the win.
16. If the team loses, you take the blame. If they win, you give them the praise.
17. Whether you win or lose, do it with class, with no exceptions.
18. You must learn how to handle adversity and setbacks.
19. When you are knocked down, keep getting back up or you will be beat mentally.
20. Coaching is teaching people how to be good people to treat others right.
21. Work should be fun, even as much as play is fun.
22. Don’t try to build strengths on sour foundations, it just will not work.
23. You must never come up with a lot of excuses when you lose.
24. Winning is a “we” thing, not a “me” thing.
25. Star players are great but I prefer good players who push themselves to be great.
26. If you are leader, it is your job to sell your people on the winning game plan.
27. Hire people that are smarter than you are and surround yourself with them.
28. Look at every problem as an opportunity to improve, not a crisis.
29. A leader can make or break great players, simply by what they do and don’t do.
30. You will improve the best with small bite sizes, not big gulps and large bites.
31. Try not to ever make the same mistake twice, so develop a game plan not to do so.
32. A winning team usually comes from average people who play like champions.
33. Your mental attitude is vital to your success even more than your physical ability.
34. You must have objectives and goals fixed in your mind like a game plan.
35. Be realistic, not everyone can achieve every goal set before them, but do set yours.
36. Practice does not make perfect, but it does make permanent, so practice correctly.
37. Playing favoritism as a leader can be detrimental to the team so be on guard of this.
38. It’s important people remember who the boss is, especially when the chips are down.
39. You must expect the unexpected and always have a plan “B” and “C”.
40. Council and communicate with your people, face to face, or a regular basis.
41. Self-discipline is one of the primary keys to success and without it, you will fail.
42. Play each play to win and never play a game looking to the next one.
43. Know how to fight very hard and keep on coming back.
44. Substitute freely with your team so that you are fresh in the fourth quarter.
45. Have such a balanced team that it is hard to tell the different strings apart.
46. If you are really trying to win on every play, the big plays will come more often.
47. Avoid negative people at all costs because they pull others down.
48. Build upon character, and if it’s not there in the first place, it’s impossible to do so.
49. Everyday, work at being a little bit better in some way.
50. Work smarter and more intelligently as you work harder too.
51. Remember that your mind controls how you perform so keep your mind fresh.
52. You must be flexible and be able to adapt and change immediately.
53. If you are a quitter, you must choose to change that behavior or accept the worse.
54. It really comes down to what’s in your heart that counts.
55. Keep in touch with every player in a team, regardless of their talents.
56. Never take cheap shots at the competition on or off the field.
57. Find a system that works and stick to it and if you do adjust, to it slowly and carefully.
58. Remember, winners will always do what losers do not want to do.
59. Don’t get cocky when you win because you will be setting yourself up for a big fall.
60. When you are down and behind, only you can turn it around and you must believe.
61. There are times when we must be willing to sacrifice, even when it hurts.
62. Today is the first day of the rest of your life so go out there and do your best.
63. Self-motivation is another key success ingredient in football and life.
64. Pay attention to details because those little things can make or break a win.
65. Pride in what you are doing and tenacity to get it done are vital to continual success.
66. The Golden Rule is still the best way to guide you in dealing with others.
67. If you are a leader, your people must believe in you or the team will struggle.
68. Block and tackle and fundamentals executed well, win more games than fancy plays.
69. When you are recruiting for your team, the first thing to look for is a strong character.
70. Go out there expecting to win, because if you expect to lose, you will.
71. You can teach people a lot more by winning than by losing.
72. Have a game plan, stick to it, and only deviate from it when absolutely necessary.
73. When you are on the field out there, you represent a lot of people in the stands.
74. Super teams have real depth in their ranks instead of some winners and losers.
75. Remember, the same things win for us in football, and in life, that always win for us. We just have a whole bunch of excuses as to why we didn’t use those winning things, when we lose.

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The Seven "C's" of Public Speaking

1. Your message should be CLEAR.

2. Your message should be CONCISE.

3. Your message should be CORRECT.

4. Your message should be CREDIBLE.

5. Your message should be COMPLETE.

6. Your message should be COURTEOUS.

7. Your message should be CONVINCING.

Always remember to be bright, be brief and be gone so that you leave your audience highly satisfied, yet wanting more instead of being bored to tears, brain dead or asleep. Remember, it is a proven fact that, all other things being equal, the best presenters with average to good material will get the best scores from audiences over the people with the impeccable material, who are poor presenters.

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Management Vs. Leadership - People Follow Great Leaders

In the corporate world we live in, every successful business and organization need good to great leaders far more than good to great managers. A leader, in the business sense, is a person who effectively guides employees to attain the company goals in the most effective and efficient way possible. While it sounds simple, in Lee Iacocca’s latest book, “Where have all the Leaders Gone?” he states… “Great leaders are hard to come by because there are not enough good role models.”

As a manager, if you learn how to become a leader, your value to your company and ability to obtain better results with your employees will improve immensely. Managing is the important left-brain aspect of business management, and it is also more mechanical, methodical and pragmatic. Leadership is the right brain aspect.

A successful leader is a person who their employees can look to both in times of success and adversity. In fact, a good benchmark of a great leader is that employees will not abandon them in times of adversity. Since most people saw and remember the movie… “Master and Commander”, I allude to the captain’s balance between leadership and management (played by Russell Crowe). It was easy to follow “Lucky Jack” in the good times but even in times of adversity, while there might have been some grumbling, the old timers in the crew kept falling back on their past experiences with their captain.

A leader must also keep an eye on the main goals of the company, while making sure each step to reach the ultimate goals are conducted in an effective, efficient and productive manner as possible. Captain Jack never took his eye off the singular goal of engaging and defeating the enemy ship, even when he discovered how much more powerful she was and the fact the opposing captain outsmarted Captain Jack two times and nearly destroyed his ship in the process.

An underrated aspect of a successful leader is the person-to-person communication skills they possess and utilize daily. A great leader knows how each individual person needs to be motivated differently, rather than simply using one means of motivation for all employees. A great leader is an on-going coach instead of a six-month or once a year formal review person. At the end of the day, the employees need to believe in their leader and have complete trust in them and the company vision.

Improving Your Leadership Skills:

If you want to improve your leadership skills, there are steps you can take. While becoming a great leader is not an overnight process, you can definitely learn how to improve your leadership qualities over time, and start accomplishing gains, immediately.

The most important part of being a great leader is honesty and trust. Employees cannot follow someone for very long whom they believe lacks integrity, ethics or character. If you find yourself questioning when to be honest, you should realize that honesty is always the right course and the right thing to do. Even if being honest about an action or event is difficult in the short-term, the long-term effects are well worth it, because it will further establish you as a respected leader.

The second aspect of being a quality leader is to understand the vision of your company or organization and its overall objects and goals. By understanding the company's expectations and goals, you can help organize all the employees so that everyone is striving toward the same vision. Captain Jack kept reminding his crew that the overall goal is to protect their homeland, England, from a French invasion from Napoleon, by doing what they could do on the high seas to keep this from happening. When you do this and share the vision with your people, you will also be able to better manage people and know how to best delegate responsibilities.

The third aspect of being a great leader is to get to know each and every one of your employees and learn all about them. It’s a common misconception that a leader should never have contact with an employee outside of business hours and should keep a safe distant on a personal level to protect themselves and the company/organization. This may be the common advice of corporate attorneys but I feel the opposite is actually closer to the truth. In fact, the more you learn about the employees, the easier it is to be a leader. You must use discretion of course, and use empathy instead of sympathy as a rule, but this is one of the most overlooked critical success factors in great leadership.

Even though you aren't expected to hang out with your employees every night of the week, getting to know them, their families, their hobbies, interests and personality is another vital step towards being a great leader. The larger the total operation gets, the tougher this will be and it will be impossible in very large corporations. However, by understanding what makes each person tick, you will better know how to handle situations that may arise.

The fourth aspect of being a great leader is being a great listener. If an employee comes to you with an idea, a great manager/leader will listen and thoughtfully consider the idea. They will also make sure they get back to the employee later in regards to the idea or concern presented to them. A common mistake of poor leaders is to think they should make all the decisions on their own. If you don’t show your employees that you value their input and opinions, you are less likely to receive their respect.

The fifth aspect of being a great leader is admitting and taking blame for mistakes. This is yet another sign of a great leader (and by the way, do it as quickly as possible). Avoid passing blame to employees, as that can lower the overall morale of your team. Instead, place the blame on your shoulders while also looking for ways to rectify the situation and avoid repeating the errors in the future. Great leaders know this is core problem solving, not symptoms solving. When adversity does come (as it always does), don’t let it splinter your employees – use the adversity as a way to pull everyone closer together. In addition, if the team hits their goals, even if you played a major part in it, give them the praise. Conversely, if the team fails, you need to take the heat or blame.

Finally, the sixth aspect of a great leader is to not forget about praise. If an employee performs well, a great leader will take note of the performance and will publicly dole out praise. While this may not seem like a major aspect of being a good leader, it’s amazing how far positive, public recognition can go to help overall employee satisfaction and morale. An employee who knows their efforts will be acknowledged, will continue to work hard and smart. Conversely, an employee who feels neglected will become disinterested in their work and begin to fail. Use at least a 4:1 ratio here (praise 4 times minimum for the one time you need to instruct or take corrective measures). In addition, never, criticize, condemn or complain about an employees’ behavior in public.

Once you have mastered those six aspects of being a great leader, the job has just begun for you. Now you have to show your commitment by leading your employees by example. A leader who is all talk and does not “walk their talk”, or they talk but do not take any action afterwards, is a leader many people will not follow.

All studies on this subject show that a great leader needs to work harder than anyone else (sorry, no surprise there I hope). You have to put in the extra work when it’s called for, which will show the rest of the employees just how dedicated you are to the vision of the company. Simply delegating out tasks to other employees isn’t good enough if you want to be seen as a successful leader. In addition, do not make it a continued habit of dumping undesirable things off your plate that no one wants to do. And of course, you must always be coming up with ways to work smarter.

One book I read on this great leadership subject was John Maxwell’s… “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Great Leadership” so there are certainly other leadership traits and characteristic you will need to work on. As you grow in your role of becoming a great leader and manager, you will face obstacles along the way. However, if you remember and most importantly, practice the main keys to being a great leader and behave with honesty, integrity and with a high trust factor, you will become a respected leader that others will want to follow.



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Effective vs. Efficient

For many years I honestly thought these words were very close in their meaning. But as I matured in my business and sales management skills, I realized they were actually very different. Before I get into this in more detail, let me give you my definitions of the two words.

Efficient: This is when you perform a single task or multiple tasks as efficiently as possible, thereby doing and/or accomplishing more things in the time you have with a minimum amount of waste of effort. For example: I can be extremely efficient at developing and preparing sales presentations to present later to a client (or clients). This might be called my base sale template and it seems efficient.
Effective: This is when you do the right things, at the right time, as efficiently as possible while producing the desired results. For example: I can make sure I adjust and customize my presentations to the personality of the person(s) I am presenting to, at a time that is perfect (or nearly so) for the client, not me, while making sure I am “face to face” with client presentations at a set goal number per week, month and year.

Here is an example of getting this all screwed up. Let’s say I am very efficient at preparing my call reports and expense accounts in as little a time as possible, with hardly any errors, and I get them in on time every week. Now that’s efficient. But what if I took the time each day, in my prime net selling time, to fill out these two reports. No one will argue, especially in accounting, that I am not efficient at this task. But how effective am I as a salesperson in using my prime net selling time to do this work?

Here is another example. Suppose I am an internal project person that people and the company as a whole rely on to get sales or other projects completed. This could be an engineer, a draftsman, a support person of any type, a designer or whomever. But now and then (not on my breaks mind you) I decide it’s time to read the periodicals and trade magazines related to my position, during prime work time. I reason in my mind that “this is part of my job”. When I perform my job description tasks, I can be the most efficient person on staff in that position. But my effectiveness is not, because once again I am doing things I could arrange to do, outside of my prime production time.

Here is yet another good example. Let’s say you are efficient at doing your job description tasks, and you use a “to do” list. But it’s not prioritized. You feel you are way ahead of people who don’t use “to do” lists and you are correct. However, you randomly access things off of your list and you have to scan the entire list each time you are ready to do something else. Sound Efficient? Well, more than most people who do not use “to do” lists. Yes, but does it sound Effective? Not nearly as effective as you could be with a prioritized “to do” list where the Urgent and Important things are on one list, prioritized by themselves, and your chores and busy work are on another separate list. Plus you could be even more effective if you update that written or computerized list outside of your prime productive time.

In summary, the name of the game is being more effective and being more productive. Effectiveness produces quality in the right quantity. Efficiency produces quantity but not necessarily the right stuff at the right time. Working smarter, not harder, is learning how to continuously be more effective, while maintaining your efficiency too.

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Aristotle and the Woodsmen - Honing Yourself For Life

Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, recorded a meaningful story that has been passed down through the ages with its powerful meaning for all of us.

Two woodsmen who had never met before, happened to be working near each other in the forest one day, but not close enough to see each other. However, they could hear the chopping and tree falling progress of each other. While they were both about the same age, one woodsman was much smaller in stature than the other one. Yet they both were very strong and muscular, a definite requirement for their trade.

As the sun was setting and the day’s work was nearing an end, the smaller woodsman approached the larger one, who was still working furiously to finish his quota for the day. “Why do you labor so?” …asked the smaller woodsman of the larger one. “Is your axe not sharp?” ….he added. The larger woodsman stopped cutting and replied… “With my great strength and skill, I need to sharpen my axe but once a day.” The smaller woodsman thought for a moment and then replied… “This may be so, but I take time to stop and sharpen my axe every hour. And even though it is obvious you have much more strength and cutting skills than I do, I have completed far more work today than you. Just think what you could do if you stopped and sharpened your axe more often, or even every hour.”

Mark Twain must have known this tale of Aristotle’s because he once told a story that had been told to him about the old man in the logging camp who could always outdo the work of younger, and stronger men. It went like this: “I once heard a story about a wise old woodsman from a logging camp who continually out did the work of men half his age and bigger than him. For many years, no one knew his secret. If you watched him work, he just kept cutting deep cuts into the trees. This wise woodsman preferred to work alone and for good reason. He had gathered a fine collection of saws and axes over the years and at night he would carefully sharpen each one. Then the next day, he kept them hidden near him dry and ready to go. And when he was sure no one was around or looking, he would switch to a newly sharpened saw or axe.”

Both stories are a great message for all of us that we can never expect to perform at our peak level, day after day, year after year, without honing our personal and business axes and saws on a regular basis. If we continue to keep cutting the wood of life, day after day, without sharpening our skills, someone else or some other company will out perform us. Continuous Improvement is the name of the game if we want to be a “cutting edge” in all we do. So my advice to you is… keep those saws and axes sharpened!!!

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Transforming Yourself For Success Through Continuous Improvement, Embracing Change and Going the Extra Mile

“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds,can change the outer aspects of their lives.”
-William James—Famous Harvard Psychologist

William James hit the nail on the head as far as I am concerned. Having worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of people as a business and sales consultant since 1983, I can attest first hand about a proven success formula. It is simply this… “People, companies and organizations that finally ‘get It’ and focus on—developing and maintaining a positive attitude in good and bad times; commit to embarking on a way of life of continuous improvement (the word kaizen in Japanese). They embrace change for the better for themselves (the company, organization, etc.), and seek out ways to go the extra mile for someone, whenever possible—cannot fail.”
If these proven principles are a fact of life, why do so many people fight embracing them? Well, I found one interesting quote from a famous and successful business consultant, Jim Rohn, with tons more experience than me, who summed it up in one sentence…. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
In other words, if you are surrounded by people who are usually negative, resist change regardless of what it is, do very little or nothing in the way of continuous improvement, and think going the extra mile is “kissing up” to somebody and/or unnecessary, you need to make a change first in yourself, and then change the five people you are around the most, if they do not change too.

One time I was doing a seminar on customer service and read the above quote and paragraph. Immediately I was confronted by a participant who said…. “Do you realize how ridiculous that statement is? What if within those five people, your immediate boss, your owner and your spouse are just like you described? What do you do then?” I could sense immediately the anguish and discomfort of most of the audience present. Then all eyes were upon me for the answer because quite frankly, most of them were dealing with the same or similar situation but would never have brought it up.

“I wish I had a magic wand answer for you, but I do not. The truth will always bear out and what Jim Rohn has said and what I have observed in my years of business consulting, supports his statement and it stands firm. Remember, the first step in self improvement is to become aware of your shortcomings. Then fix yourself first by… stop doing what you should not be doing; keep doing what you should be doing; and start doing what you should be doing. So many people make the mistake of expecting others to change before they will and that is totally the wrong approach.”

One of my heroes, Zig Ziglar summed it all up this way…. “Your attitude in life determines your altitude in life.” It takes some smarts and savvy along the way, but that can be learned. It is up to you where you want to be and no one else. Now go for it.

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For Want of a Nail - Anonymous

This anonymous poem is well over a 1000 years old, but it is just as true then as it is now. As the saying goes… “The Devil is in the Details” and if we do not take care of the details, they will come back to haunt us again and again. Here’s the poem.

For Want of a Nail,

The Shoe was lost.

For want of the Shoe,

The Horse was lost.

For want of the Horse,

The Knight was lost.

For want of the Knight,

The Battle was lost.

And for the want of that one Battle,

The entire War was lost!
Just one small mistake can cost us a small, medium or very large customer, especially if we repeat it. And that converts to lost income in two ways (the money it took to get the customer and the sales income we lose). Zero mistakes may be virtually impossible but it is not a bad idea to shoot for zero mistakes for one day, two days, a week and maybe even a month. Remember, would you fly with an airline that boasts a 99% take off and landing record without loss of life? You get the picture.
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Mark-ups and Gross Profit Margins

Overview: As a business and sales consultant that has worked in the home building and remodeling industry since 1983, I’ve attended a lot of national seminars from some of the most successful home builders and remodelors and they all have some common success traits. But the one that is consistently present is the mark-up formulas they use. Assuming you know the difference between mark-ups and gross margins, here is what I have found and continue to recommend to my clients.

For the small builder, since he or she cannot get the buying power of the big builder, he needs to shoot at no less than 1.25 (or a 25% mark-up) to achieve a 20% gross margin. Most home builders I run into that are working for wages mark-up only 10%, or at the most, 15%. Then, by the time they pay for all their overhead (even though it is no where near what the big builder has), they end up working for wages. They cannot grow and expand with this kind of mark-up and when one bad job comes along, they could be forced into bankruptcy because they do not have any cash reserves. The name of the game with big and small builders is to hit somewhere around the 10% net profit mark before taxes.

Large builders can mark-up 34% or more to get a 25% gross margin. And in large custom homes where there is no real bidding involved, these margins can be higher. It is the choice of the builder (large and small) to do this, and, so long as the customer gets what they were promised at the price they were promised, everything is ethical and legal. That’s the hardest part to sell to builders who are working for wages.

Remodelors need sharply higher mark-ups (and thereby higher gross profit margins) because their business is not as easy to price and work within for many reasons. Most successful remodelors I’ve talked to over the years mark-up no less than 1.54 (or a 54% mark-up) to get a 35% gross margin and the really good ones go 1.67 (or a 67% mark-up) to get a 40% gross margin. In some cases, on smaller jobs, I’ve seen 2.0 (or a 100% mark-up). This might also happen on individual items within a project.

“Is this fair to the customer?” … I was once asked in a Home Builders Association seminar I was putting on. “Absolutely,”… I answered… “because you do not want to get 100% of the jobs you bid or even 50% of them unless you are getting great margins. To have the income and profits to grow your business and hire and keep the best employees (and subs, etc.), you must charge higher prices to get better margins. I’ve worked with hundreds of different types of companies in all types of industries over the years and the consistent winners always have more mark-up and gross margins than their competitors. This allows them to put money back into their companies to make them an even sharper competitor. But if they just take the extra funds and squander them, instead of reinvesting them, they will eventually fail. It’s just a matter of time.”

The goal in any business, large or small, is to be profitable and build wealth. You are hopefully in it for the long haul. Therefore, you must have the courage to charge properly for your products and services and be prepared to not get all the jobs you quote. Begin a bite size at a time, not all at once. If you are an excellent builder, remodelor or business, you will be doing very well, profits wise, within a year.
Mark-Up/Gross Margin—Guideline Sheet

Gross Profit Margin Desired Multiplier Add To Cost Of Item

Theoretically a true GPM of 100% is Not Possible

90% ..........10.0.......... 900%
80% ..........5.0 ...........400%
75% ..........4.0 ...........300%
67% ..........3.0 ..........200%
64% ..........2.75......... 175%
60% ..........2.5........... 150%
55% ..........2.25.......... 125%
50% ..........2.0........... 100%
47.5%........ 1.91.......... 91%
45% .......... 1.85.......... 85%
42.5% ........ 1.75......... 75%
40% ............1.67......... 67%
37.5% ..........1.60........ 60%
35% ............1.54......... 54%
32.5% ........ 1.48......... 48%
30% .............1.43........ 43%
27.5% ..........1.38........ 38%
25% .............1.34........ 34%
22.5% ..........1.29........ 29%
20% .............1.25........ 25%
17.5% ...........1.21........ 21%
15% ..............1.18........ 18%
12.5% ...........1.14........ 14%
10% .............1.11......... 11%
7.5% ...........1.085....... 8.5%
5% ..............1.06.......... 6%

The figures in the quick reference above are rounded in most cases for ease of use only.
Actual Formula: Final sales price divided into the mark-up dollar amount from your total costs = the actual Gross Profit Margin desired (i.e. cost total $100.00 and sales price is $181.81 or a mark-up of $81.81 = $81.81 divided by $181.81 = .44999% GPM or 45% rounded up).
The easiest way to achieve a desired GPM is to follow this Divisor formula: (1) Subtract the desired or required GPM from 1.00, which is $100 converted to 1.00, and this can work with any cost figure. (e.g. I desire to have a GPM of 45%) (2) 1.00 - .45 = .55 Divisor (3) Now, Divide your direct costs of $100 by .55 and you get a sales price needed of $181.81 to obtain your desired Gross Profit Margin of 45%.

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Customer Service as a Plus or a Disaster

There have literally been many hundreds of books written on the subject of Great and Bad Customer Service. Most people understand what it means too. But where most companies (and their owners and managers) fall down flat on their face on this subject is in empowering their front line people to make decisions to keep the customer happy.

For example, I have worked with hundreds of companies over the years and in my business analysis process, Customer Service is one of some thirty main areas were I do research and rate a company
on a scale of 1-10. 1 is totally unacceptable and 10 is exemplary. Now here is a surprising thing I will find most often. While management and employees usually rate the company’s Customer Service overall in the 7’s, 8’s and 9’s, the employees at the front line lose important clients because they do not see the “big picture” and/or they have not been trained and empowered (usually a dollar amount limit) to make decisions right on the spot to keep the client happy.

More often than not I have heard horror stories about companies who lose an account they want to keep over a very small incident (and/or dollar amount) that was handled improperly at the front line. For instance, let’s say you are a steady customer at a restaurant and you get bad service and feel no one seems to care about it. Well the records on this will show that most people will not say or do anything except walk away and never come back. But you can bet they will tell tons of people about how badly they were treated and that bad message gets expounded on “big time” as it spreads from person to person. You cannot imagine how often what my investigation turns up in regards to how small an issue the incident was that caused the loss of the customer.

The solution is simple. Educate and empower your front line people to make field decisions to keep the client happy so you do not loose them over a small, resolvable incident. I once had a boss who demonstrated this to me, first hand, again and again, what to do in these situations. He diffused the customer so fast that he was able to ask them to buy more things. It was amazing and the cost to the company was minimal in the long run in taking care of the problem. And most important of all, we did not lose clients over such issues.

There is a sign that has been hanging in many mailrooms and offices since as long as I can remember. It says… Rule #1—The Customer is Always Right. Rule #2—If the Customer is every wrong, refer to rule number one. Now I know there are a few customers out there who, you will tell me, “this is a crazy rule to honor”. Alright, so be it. But let’s not lose a hard earned client over a nickel or dime issue that could be questionable as to whether it was their fault or ours. We also know it costs far more to gain a new customer (hard and soft marketing and sales costs) than it does to keep them (anywhere from 5 to 10 times more in most cases).

Remember, when an issue like this comes up, this is your chance to show your class and blow the customer away. Wouldn’t you rather have them telling hundreds of people about what an incredible company you have and how well they were treated, instead of how badly they were treated (which always spreads faster and with more exaggeration)? And it takes so little training and empowerment to make this company policy. I don’t think in this day and age of extreme competitiveness you have any choice but to make sure you implement this as policy immediately. But of course, the choice is yours.

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Why My Dad Is Great

In helping my dad put together his blog, I just had to write a quick article explaining what I believe makes him such a successful business consultant, and more importantly to me, a wonderful man...The first thing that comes to mind is his tenderness. My dad is the kind of guy who has suffered enough in life to be tender, patient and kind - to really listen, and better than that, seek to understand and help. I've never met a person who asked my dad for help and didn't get it and then some - he's an amazingly helpful person, in fact some people have been amazed at the lengths to which he has gone to help a total stranger.

My dad is the guy who you see jumping out of their car to help push another car all the way to the gas station, or the one who kindly confronts the person who just cut in line that the rest of us are too scared, or too tired to confront. He's the guy who hasn't given up on anything or anyone in his whole life - the kind you want with you in a fight, the kind you need when the chips are down. Which reminds me, my dad is a fighter, and I can't tell you how many times I've watched him fight with everything he had on behalf of someone else, whether or not there would be a thank you for him in the end.

My dad is the person who helps other people see the potholes in their business, their life, even in their driveway - but he doesn't stop there. He gets out his wheelbarrow - he gets out his shovel, he brings out materials and he goes to work to fill in the holes and make life less bumpy.

I've learned so much from my dad over the years. I've learned to not be afraid of bullies. I've learned that no one can "make" me feel or do anything - but that I choose how to respond in life. I've learned that life is hard, but real men don't give up or give in - they keep going. That's my dad - and if I were you, I'd get him on my team as soon as possible!

I love you Dad! Love, Kim
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