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 Executive Coaching … a systems approach to better results for the organization!Sales Force Upgrade … a direct, no-nonsense approach to getting better results, same staff!The Inside Story … a practical, individualized guide for shaping your future!Decision Traps to Avoid #37 It’s no surprise that most people have not been trained on how to make great decisions. Most move so quickly that decisions often make no sense and have no positive impact on results. Three traps to look for: Traps are everyday condtions that are so common that they go unnoticed. Here are three of them:
My belief is that, without great decisions, you won’t see positive results. Isn’t decision making at the root of all progress? I think so. Accept the fact that you must develop your own decision making model. You are key to the design of how you will make decisions. If you don’t bring your personal essence to this process, it will not serve you. With your own tailored-to-you model, you not only avoid the traps, you will also learn how to always create three alternative before making the decision.
Answer these questions: Take a decision you are facing and answer these four questions: 1. Why do you need to make a decision on this? 2. What would happen if you choose not to make a decision?
Basic Concept: When you spend a little time sorting out the answers to these questions, you can rely on your wisdom, experience and vision to guide your answers. You don’t have to ask these specific questions. Make up your own. As long as you are rock solid convinced on why a decision is needed and what it will do for you, the rest will be easier. I hope that you will try this on your own before you (decide to) use it with others. Cheers, Richard 800 560 0880
Personal Potential 36
Let’s assume that you can improve in any area of your profession by at 50%. You choose the area. What would you choose?
No matter where you are now, to move forward there are two things to do:
* Become 10x more clear on exactly what you want = clarity
* Decide that you will have it = decision
These two items are fundamental to accessing, not just your potential but your clarity of direction. They are what we all have to address sooner or later. Most don’t bother. It is much easier to let outside factors dictate our results. Not good.
Clarity is crucial because, since you have so many options, it is necessary to identify only one that will create a great, exciting future.
Clarity and goals–get the sequence right:
Do not pursue goals that will not pull you toward the future you really want. It is very easy to be chasing goals that are wrong for you, having too many goals or having too few goals. Clarity solves all three these problems.
Gain clarity and make the decision to have what you want. Once you do, you will be able to set some pretty exciting goals These well thought out goals will quickly deliver all of these:
Results:
* Clarity of direction and a strategy to get there
* Increased confidence
* Increased competence
* Increase motivation to move in a new direction
* More direct means to achievement, less waiting for others
* Far less stress of uncertainty and second guessing yourself
* Self trust and self reliance the true keys to potential
Clarity first, goals second:
Gaining clarity requires effort. It may sound easy, but it could be the most difficult thing you have done all year.It will not come to you in a flash. It requires a little time and a lot of self-trust. Begin the process with high expectations that you do (or soon will)know exactly what you want and that what you want will inspire you.
Personal clarity is the most direct path to leveraging your potential!
Four guidelines:
Re-design your future or the future of your business. Invest in three 60 minute “sessions” alone over a one week period. Do not go with your first ideas unless they repeat over the three sessions.
Know that you cannot yet and do not have to “figure out” any aspect of how you will do this – just get lots of clarity on what it is you want.
Trust that some part of you already knows the answers.
Expect to set at least three goals once you make your decision on what you want. The goal is simply an action step to move you.
Bottom line:
Goals are great to have, must haves, if you know what you want. If you don’t know,goals won’t matter.
I hope you will try this.
Sincerely Richard R 800 560 0880 Your Sales Department is your future: #35
Look to your new, expansive sales process and see the future unfold: Let’s say the sales process was probably designed for conditions 10 years back. That will not get you to the type of future you want. Here is what to do. Take a few days alone and write a complete description of your “upgraded” sales process. Design it to attract the kinds of sales people and customers who will serve you best. Make sure the process will bring you the new business you want, both volume and margins. Keep it simple, but make it good - something you can rely on to take you forward.
Out with the old: If you can’t get it after three days, something is seriously wrong. Stop working on it. Instead, work with the sales department to craft an entirely new sales process. Think “out with the old; in with the better!” Really start from scratch. It will be easier than trying to adjust and tweak the old ways. It will also be more freeing. Here is a simple method to get you started.
Questions toward the new and improved sales department: Think from a point 24 months out into the future and answer each of the following. • Imagine the existing product is not as useful as it once was. What now? • Pretend that your current sales approach is 10 years behind? What would you do to change it? • What has not worked well with the current sales leadership approach? How will you want it to change? • Decide as a team on the future of your product. What would customers love? If you don’t know, why? • How much more value can you create with your top accounts? Start with one specific account. How can you improve there? • Is this sales group motivated enough to create a value-driven approach to selling? It is not done in a flash. These questions will force a different way of thinking. That is exactly what we all need to do – think differently if we are to thrive and produce well into the future.
Action idea Make your own list of questions and points for discussion. Meet with those responsible for future sales. A lot is counting on your answers.
Cheers, Richard
Don’t be average. It won’t suit you. 34
All of us need to be capable of change and of generating new ideas. In fact, we need to self- initiate our own change and improvement. The natural offset to this is contentment. Being content with where you are repels any new ideas from reaching you. People who are content don’t make improvements. Next year will be just like this year. Today’s problem is the focus, not its solution.
If you examine the past few months, you may be surprised to see how few new ideas you have developed. We all have had good training in “Don’t complain” and “be happy you have what you have” lessons. They operate beneath the surface and do a good job of lowering possibility. You do not need new ideas once you have settled for what you have.
Create some discontent:
If you want to improve anything, you need new and better ideas. The very first step is to know you are not content with today’s results. Expect there is more to be done, to be enjoyed and to be produced. Decide to surface where you most want significant improvement. Develop a three month project to make it happen. Don’t be content with today. Growth and advancement is natural. Build on that.
There an inner urge for more, for improved conditions, for fulfillment and accomplishment. Everyone wants a clearer path to a great life. Don’t let contentment put a stop to your future.
Work on development of a healthy discontent; see where it can lead. You don’t want to be average!
Sincerly, Richard R
Selling Your Solution. It’s all you need to do! #33 One big reason sales efforts lose their punch is the disconnect between you and your prospect. Why a disconnect? Three reasons: 1. The product is presented as if it were a “run-of-the-mill”,”me too” commodity. 2. The sales person misses too many signals from the prospect that should never be missed 3. The sales process stops too early.
Four not so easy questions: Here is a suggestion for the the first two reasons. You can act on both simultaneously. Get all those involved in selling to explore the following:
What is the most important thing this product or service will do for the customer? Think of business results and personal gains for the prospect. You must know both. Do you still get excited about selling the product? If not, work to determine how to change this. Is your system for discovery of dissatisfaction and of relating with the prospect based on how buyers actually make decsions? You already have the solution - just dig it out. There is a lot more to selling success. However, if prospects are not impressed with your conviction that you can help them, you will not get very far. Bottom line-your belief in the product and in your own confidence must come before any sale is possible. I suggest two sales meetings to go through these four questions. See what flows. You will be happy that you took the time. You can handle it! 32 The four attitudes: It is also a good idea to decide where you stand on these four beliefs: • Situations you face are specific to you and your ability for dealing with it • Situations that you don’t deal with have a tendency to repeat • You have the inner resources needed to solve what you encounter along the way • The situation is there for you as a stimulus for your growth Action idea: Find one situation at work - with a manager, a customer, yourself. Adopt any of the above attitudes and apply them to the situation. Spend a day, a week or more. Whatever you need. See what you can come up with toward a solution. I predict you will handle it better. It will resolved quickly. An easy, no cost way to get better results: 31 Ever gone to a weekly sales meeting, listened closely and never heard a word about how to improve actual results? Or, perhaps you expected to hear some new ideas for growth but got only blank stares? I have, and until you force a change, you will not see any improvement. Develop some rules as guides: The purpose of the sales department is to produce results. The very best way to hold yourself and those you manage accountable for results is to first decide what the results will be. For many, this may represent a big shift away from excuses and stories and toward results. Don’t worry. The majority will take to this process. In fact, I predict 99% would love to have any process that gives them a chance to be more focused, responsible and self-driven. Rules help: Here is how it works: • Write down the results you anticipate The process allows members to: • Know what they did well There are two good reasons to adopt this method. First, it will improve sales focus and results. Second, it will allow salespeople to know and build on their strengths. I hope that you will use these ideas in any area of your own leadership or in any department. Richard L Reardon # 30 The problem? 99% of what you now use as a goal setting strategy actually prevents you from achieving the results you expect. Every time you focus on that goal, you are re-enforcing the belief that you do not have what you want. Think of all the advice you have heard on goal setting. Doesn’t that advice start with the unstated belief that you do not now have what you want? Common goal setting strategies focus on the goal as if the goal lives not only outside of you, but, is somewhere in the future. As long as the “goal” exist outside of you, it cannot develop as part of your conditions. By using any common goal strategies, you are simply reinforcing what you do not have. It comes down to belief! In essence, when you set goals you are telling yourself that you do not believe you have what you want. That belief will quietly live on and on. Create from within: Once you create that future inside (no small feat), you will begin to adopt new beliefs that are more in line with the desired condition. Action idea: Imagine a new condition you truly want to have. Create a vivid image of the condition. List on paper why you want it, how it will impact your life, where it may lead, how it connects to your energy, passion and purpose, etc. Keep filling out the picture. Get excited about your possibilities. Next, determine what new beliefs will be necessary to support the new condition. This is where you need to look deeper into why you want what you say you want. Determine how much change you will be required to make. It will not be done in one step. Give yourself plenty of time to grow into this new condition. There is no rush. But, don’t drag your feet. This process is very different from simply setting goals. It is more effective and a gets you more emotionally engaged. Once again, it is all about beliefs. I hope that you will use this. I have seen terrific changes take place with sales teams as well as individuals. The process is exactly the same. Cheers, Richard Reardon 800 560 0880 Reality test of greatness 29 A very small number of people make a commitment to “greatness” at work. Sadly, others are running on empty, drifting along –waiting to see what happens next. They allow the job to be something to “get through”. The attitude that reflects no passion, no vision and no growth is the polar opposite of what work is meant to be. Most of us have the wrong relationship with work. It is one that eliminates any chance of personal greatness. Why does greatness at work matter? Because work is the key to having a life of meaning. Think of it this way: When you live your life at work as if it matters, you are set up to: • Know what you are doing and why Changing how you relate to work will deliver three immediate benefits: You will see reality – develop a realistic view of what is really going on around you You will decrease your tolerance for conditions that no longer serve you Action: Re-write your job description. Keep it to yourself. Add 3 to 5 actions to your current job that call on your primary talent and point you toward what you consider to be great (excellence). Even if the first draft is not perfect, keep at it till you have a document you can be happy with. Once done, start immediately to act in a way to accomplish that new image. New action is 90% of this process. You job is designed to reflect your greatness — or should be. I hope that you will try this. Richard L Reardon
#28 Many people work hard day-after-day. However, very few are making much progress. They operate on an event-by-event basis and never link daily actions to the broader picture or plan. When there is no plan, work-a-day mentality takes over, and it is all but impossible to focus on what’s really important. Plans (and strategies) are keys to success for three reasons:
Action idea: Begin observing actual results and comparing them to what you want. Then ask, “Was this result called for in the plan?” This is a simple, fast and revealing way to decide what is important to you, the team and the company. I hope that you will try this. It may provide you some good insights. Best, Richard Reardon 800 560 0880 |
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