Beverly and I began our journey of creating Our Best Year Ever by
taking a week off to tour California’s Wine Country. Hey, part of
this whole program is having some fun so why not start there.
We visited a number of great wineries in Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma
and the California lakes region with some friends. One winery in the lakes region stood out, not for its wine, necessarily, but for how it miserably failed to deliver on a tremendous possibility.
This was a breathtakingly beautiful property, right on the lake with a luxurious Spanish Hacienda-style structure. The wine maker had a rich history and an international reputation. The product (wine) was exceptional. The tasting room was well designed and inviting. And, it had an intriguing story around its organic and biodynamic grapes (biodynamic is like organic on steroids). It had all the makings of a winner.
On two separate days we visited the tasting room, only to find the same lackluster, disinterested, detached and unwelcoming people serving this terrific product in this distinctive setting. To say they dropped the ball would be a gross understatement. The experience made us wonder how many of our customers, how many businesses, are working so hard these days to make their mark in
a challenging environment only to blow it by having the wrong people deliver the ultimate experience. Or, perhaps they have good people who just need some guidance, some training and some higher expectations relative to their impact on the customer.
This appears to us to be one of the simpler challenges for any business to handle—hiring the right people, people with a positive attitude who have the capacity to demonstrate a modicum of gratitude that the customer took the time to stop by their establishment. With all the layoffs you would think it would be
easier than ever to find people who enjoy their work, like serving customers and take pleasure in making customers feel welcome and appreciated.
This is apparently not the case, at least not at this winery. This is a sad example of a company doing 99% of the work brilliantly while ignoring the final, and most important, 1%, the ultimate customer experience.
We write and speak about the need to be an Unforgettable Leader. We have said this before, but an average product in an average setting and delivered in an unforgettably positive manner will demolish the competition in most cases. Sadly, not even a wonderful product or beautiful setting can take the spotlight off horrible service.
Before you go home tonight give some thought to the people you have interacting with customers and prospects. Do they make you product and business glimmer like a high price diamond? If not you might want to give that last, and important 1% a little more of your attention.
One of the hazards of these challenging times is that we are seeing a significant upswing in micro-management. There are three problems with this.
First, if you absolutely feel you must micro-manage then you really have more of a talent problem than a management problem. Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great, recently said, “The right people don’t need to be managed. If you need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.” Instead of micro-managing, your time would be much better spent by getting on with the business of either training your people or replacing those that need to be micro-managed.
Second, micro-management is, often, a self-fulfilling prophecy. We think people need to be micro-managed so we do so. By micro-managing we remove all of the fun and creativity from people’s jobs. They settle and stop contributing, giving rise to the need for micro-management. If we would just get out of the way, be specific about expectations and the consequences of not fulfilling on these, people would just do their jobs.
Finally, by micro-managing we create an environment that is simply unattractive to good people. By micro-managing we actually create turnover, costly turnover and not superior results.
Please, share your thoughts on micro-managing by adding a comment below. And, pass this on to a friend.
We recently published our new eBook, More Sales, Less Selling and announced our More $ales, Less $elling Referral $ystem™ Teleseminar Program. This is 7 teleseminars of 60-90 minutes in length that teach people about a system we have used to build five businesses and land many multi-million dollar accounts throughout our careers.
As you might expect, we have had many questions. So, we decided to take several of these questions and comments and answer them, one at a time, in a recorded message. So, sit back, turn up the speakers on your computer and hear how we addressed a key observation.
We hear this all the time. So, we recorded a few tips about how
to make our system work and generate more sales, fast, through
referrals. Just click the Play button > below or click here to listen to the audio recording.
Join us on March 3, 2009 for the beginning of the More $ales, Less $elling Referral $ystem™ Teleseminar Program. Click here to learn more about our proprietary and highly effective way to build sales, fast, through referrals.
Sue (name changed to protect the innocent) is responsible for planning and managing the many employee meetings, particularly off-site meetings, for her large company. Recently, her “boss” told her she could not attend a meeting that was her responsibility for “cost cutting reasons”.
I thought she was joking!
Her job is to plan and run the meetings but she could not attend because the company wants to save money. She has a job to do but the “boss” won’t let her do it! I can’t help but wonder how the annual performance review conversation will go. When Sue leaves the company in favor of one that encourages her to actually do her job well I wonder what the “boss” will say then?
My guess is she/he will not much care. His/her commitment is to “get through” the next year or so rather than contributing to the company by allowing the developing leaders to actually lead.
Perhaps the “boss” could have said to Sue, “you know we have challenges during this economy. So, please use your best judgment on which of your meetings require your attendance and which do not.” How difficult would that be? The “boss” allows Sue to apply leadership thinking, Sue learns about making tough decisions and perhaps even delegating to others. Instead of wanting to leave, Sue gets inspired, engaged and involved while the company saves money by Sue not attending certain meetings.
How many “bosses” are just doing what they are told and loosing aspiring leaders in the process? Are there any companies out there that are actually developing leaders rather than just talking about it?
I am on my way to Miami to speak for Sanofie-Aventis and the Envelope Manufacturers Association. If they are anything like my program last week for the Resource Commercial Flooring Network, I will be very happy.
The commercial flooring sector hasn’t had a free ride from our economic challenges. Nevertheless, the attitudes among the attendees was wonderful. No whining, worrying and wringing of hands. These hard working, dedicated and enthusiastic business owners get that the only thing that will help us out of these challenges is our attitudes. They are not Pollyanna, just determined and understanding that fear and reliance on someone else (the government for example) will undermine their success. It was a pleasure to work with this group. innopran xl
There was a time when the Internet was all about speed. We sent emails (fast) and people would expect us to respond (fast). Now, this is still true but the Internet has become a tool for much more than speed. Click here to view our video, Vibrant Communications.
Employees, customers and prospects have different needs and learning styles. Some like to watch (video), some like to listen (audio), while others are at there best when reading. We wrote about this in our book, Creating Contagious Leadership, in the chapter The Habit of Vibrant Communication.
If we just do that which is fast or efficient (email), we will fail to communicate with large numbers of people. If, however, we practice Vibrant Communication and include variety, our communication will break through to all audiences.
This post is a good example. The same message delivered by video, and the written word.
And, if you want to listen to the message in audio format, click the play button below.
The question is are you practicing Vibrant Communication? Are you being a Contagious Leader or just doing that which is efficient (fast). At the end of the day leadership is about effectiveness more than efficiency.
So, open up, practice Vibrant Communication and watch your leadership soar.
Leaders need to know what makes everyone tick, starting with themselves
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Albert Einstein
Just recently, John and I critically looked at our strengths (trying to keep our egos at bay) because we needed to see how we could be more effective and productive in our business which is morphing very quickly. We were excited but both of us were feeling ‘overwhelmed’. We know that when that ‘overwhelmed’ feeling occurs that we were probably out of sync with our strengths.
As a result of a very candid and slightly uncomfortable conversation we realized that with the shift in our business to new lines of distribution, launching social networking and internet visibility campaigns and telephonic product development, we had to reorganized who was doing what. We needed to update our thinking and value to the organization to successfully take on our new opportunities and challenges.
John wrote about the power of focusing on people’s strengths in his book Creating Contagious Leadership.
Red Auerbach, once the head coach for the Boston Celtics, had an amazing talent for assembling groups of individual players and winning championships. During his tenure Auerbach lead the Celtics to eight consecutive NBA Championship seasons and nine championships in all. He seemed to do this by focusing on the strengths of each player and allowing them to be the best they could be by looking to their greatness. The Celtics had a few stars like Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Sam Jones, but most of the players were role players. They were all good players, just not stars. Some of them had played for other teams with average results. But when they came together as members of the Boston Celtics, they became champions. All because Red Auerbach was willing to understand each player’s strengths, and then relentlessly focused on those strengths.
So what are your strengths? Here’s a simple question that can have you thinking for hours. What three adjectives describe you? Putting it another way, who are you being in the world? When we answer this question, our lives are successful, productive and fun.
Find out what three adjectives describe John and Bev and how to engineer your own I Am statement on our next complimentary Teleseminar. You can register by going to:
It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s effective. Join us for the first ever Maximizing Your Success Jigsaw challenge teleseminar This call will introduce a tool which is one of the most revealing and effective ways we have ever developed to help you get to know how to be your best!
Nido Qubein has been a friend and business coach for John and me. He has a strong vision of leadership. Nido came to this country at 17 years old, with $50 bucks and unable to speak English. He is now a multi-millionaire. He is a sensitive and insightful leader who creates success in every project he takes on.
• Relationships break down when there is a preoccupation with self.
• Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people.
• The practical side of dreaming is being willing to pay the price to make those dreams come true.
• If you work only on days you feel like working, you’ll never amount to much.
• Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? A thermometer only reflects the temperature of its environment, adjusting to the situation. But a thermostat initiates action to change the temperature in its environment.
• Those with a strong self-image realize that the only way to keep from making mistakes is to do nothing — and that’s the biggest mistake of all.
• The process of growing and learning always involves risk. No one ever becomes perfect; but anyone can improve.
• Whether you are a success or failure in life has little to do with your circumstances; it has much more to do with your attitude.
• If you could view your life as you do a highway from an airliner, many of the detours and curves would make more sense.
• The practical dreamers know the harder they work, the luckier they get.
• No failure, misfortune, or mistake is ever so great that nothing good can come from it.
• Only when your memories are more important to you than your goals are
you old.
• Fixing the blame is never important, and fixing the relationship is never unimportant.
• You can’t think your way into acting positively; but you can act your way into thinking positively.
• People who are looking for something to make them happy, somehow never seem to find it. Yet those who find a way to be happy while they are looking for something, typically find what they are looking for.
• What matters is not so much how you got to be the way you are now, but what you do with the person you have become.
• A strong awareness that you are loved by God provides the most solid foundation for building high
self-esteem.
• Your best bet for a good job is to do the best you can with the one you have right now.
• Those who spend their lives searching for happiness never find it, while those who search for meaning, purpose, and strong personal relationships find that happiness usually comes to them as a by-product of those three things.
Isn’t this exactly what we all need right now, More Sales, Less Selling!
Well, please pardon the shameless self-promotion but we are thrilled and feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the response to the publication of our new eBook, More Sales, Less Selling. This is such a simple concept, selling more while selling less.
More Sales, Less Selling
Beverly is fond of saying that in every book, eBook and seminar people read and or attend there are a number of elephant sized footprints. Our jobs are to focus in on these footprints, separating them from all the other information so we can glean the real treasure in the message. The elephant sized footprint in More Sales, Less Selling is the More Sales, Less Selling Referral System™ outlined in Chapters 8-12. By executing this system as a separate strategy, rather than relying on asking for referrals as an add-on conversation, one of the 5 Deadly Mistakes People Make When Asking for Referrals, we can shape our business and create an endless stream of profitable customers.
Steve Chandler, best selling author of Fearless and the Joy of Selling had this to say about More Sales, Less Selling:
“This system will be assigned training for
every sales team. It will sweep the planet
with a total reversal in the attitude of selling.”
Please let us know what you think by offering a comment below. And, be a good friend and pass this post on to others who could use the help of More Sales, Less Selling.
We have had a tremendous response and some frustration to last weeks teleseminar, HowTo Thrive in Tight Timesand topamax alcoholism . It is not surprising to us that most of
your questions, comments and concerns were around Action 1,
Focusing on the top 20% of your income and/or impact producing
activities.
We never said it would be easy. Nor did we say to not do those
“other activities” that were necessary to the running of your
business.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree
into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your
miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few
points”dosis lamisil
We all have necessary and important activities to perform in the
normal course of keeping our businesses going in the desired direction.
However, all too often we do these instead of the critical income and impact
producing activities.
We have heard people say, “I can’t possibly do that top 20%
thing. It is a great idea but won’t work for me. There is just too
much to do around here, and I am the one to do them.”
All true! However, doing many of these activities keeps us from
zeroing in on those that produce big results.
Think of it this way; if you had an emergency that required you
to leave your office and only spend 20% of your time working, what
would you focus on? Who would you delegate those “other important
activities” too? Which of these “important” activities would you
let go off?
We hope you find this deeper dive into the subject helpful. Let
us know by commenting below.
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