Who Else Wants to Be a Speaker
Jay Lillie
August 05, 2009
We've asked some of the top speakers in the U.S. to share their thoughts.
Each person should think of themselves as an entreprenure at their desk -(You will either grow your position or grow up to a new position)
Volunteer to assist people with their needs and wants without expectation(This is a form of tithing and we all know what tithing can bring)
Have everyone state what they believe their position to be - Specifying tasks and what would help them to make their positions more efficent and effective (This communication can help business, the manager and the worker)
Adrienne Toghraie www.TradingOnTarget.com
IS your company post recession ready in September?
Has your company been more focused on ROI, than ROR?
We all know what ROI is: Return on Investment. But what is ROR? ROR is Recruiting, Onboarding, and Retention. Let’s look at recruiting. When the recession is over, if you think candidates are going to be beating the doors down to work for your company? If you do, think again, especially if you have had hiring freezes, layoffs, and downsizing. These acts put a ‘dent’ into the community perspective and the ‘culture’ of the organization. Onboarding is a term used to embed new employees into the company’s vision, strategy, and culture. Do you have a formal onboarding process, or is it ‘baptism by fire’…. If it is the later…. Another ‘dent’ in the culture’. Retention is very much overlooked. If you think those ‘survivors’ that made the last cut are loyal and engaged employees and will stick around… think again. A recent Harris pool indicated that 50% of employees are disengaged at work. Another 13% are ‘actively’ disengaged! Employee disengagement is an epidemic that is costing companies millions of dollars! It begins with the company ‘mandate’. I like ‘mandate’ better than mission or vision… Mandate is the reason for the existence of the company or organization. If your company were to go away, how would the community suffer? Those that can answer these questions with ‘clarity and purpose’.. have a great start to the post recession. Is your company or culture a PUSH or a PULL culture. If your culture is one of fear and disengagement, it is a PUSH culture. If your culture is one of full engagement to the company mandate, it is a PULL culture. It is not only pulling new hires into the organization, but also pulling, customers, stakeholders and community members. Cultures are happening either informally or formally. Informal cultures just evolve and usually end up being ‘fear based’ or PUSH cultures. Formal cultures are ‘intentionally’ made through constant mentoring and coaching day to day, not just the annual performance appraisal. They engage and PULL constituents toward the mandate!
So I close with these questions:
1. What is the company’s “MANDATE” for existence?
2. Does the culture “PULL” people to that MANDATE… or PUSH people away
3. Do you have a ‘culture of coaching’ for day to day feedback?
The answer to these questions will determine if you need cultural ‘alignment’, ‘re-alignment, or resuscitation!
Ed Gash www.calleaglewings.com
Brand Aid
One of the primary reasons businesses struggle to gain market share – whether during good economic times or bad – is their failure to effectively differentiate themselves from others fighting for clients or customers in their category. Here are three crucial things to keep in mind when formulating an effective marketing plan:
1. Be Remarkable – Author Seth Godin describes being remarkable as being “worthy of being remarked about.” So what are you doing in your business that causes others to notice, perk-up, pay attention and talk about you – to others? It’s not enough to simple be good, taste better, look prettier, have sturdier construction or last longer. Being darned good is just the entry fee. But to do more than merely compete, you have to creatively and legitimately stand-out, be noticed and remembered. What’s your schtick, you’re clever tag or far-superior packaging? Build your brand identity with the clear intention of not just being good, or even great, but of being truly remarkable.
2. Have a Plan –It used to be said that if you build a better mouse trap, people will beat a path to your door. Not anymore. There are so many voices in the marketplace clamoring to be heard that it’s almost deafening. Wake up! Customers aren’t going to find you on their own. You have to know who all your audiences are and create a plan for how you are going to get your marketing messages out to each of them. Who would want to buy your product or service? What do they watch, read or listen to? Where do they congregate, recreate or dine? Where do they connect, collect or gather? You need to be where they are – and that doesn’t happen by accident. Being better than the competition isn’t enough. You have to have a well-crafted plan for how to reach your customers – where they are!
3. Be Very, Very Visible! – The greatest enemy of success in business is anonymity. If people don’t know who you are, they can’t buy what you’re selling. From your stand-out signage, or eye-turning store-front to your bright packaging, killer website, viral videos and public presentations, to be well known, you have to be…well…known, seen and remembered. Look at what your competition is doing to be seen by customers and do more much more. Market more. Crank up the PR and find creative ways to get interviewed by the press. Be active in professional associations and service clubs. Volunteer your time, speak, write books or articles, advertise, exhibit, network, blog, Tweet and always,always do everything you do with consistency, professionalism and class. Build your brand by being creative, unique and desirable – and then promote the heck out of it!
David Avrin www.visibilitycoach.com
Bob’s Top Three Sales Tips for Improving Business, starting today.
1. Target for R.O.T.I. (Return on time invested)
To do that you need to define the sales prospecting criteria for three customer levels –A, B, and C. Your best customers are considered you’re “A” or absolute customers, because without them, you would be out of business. This is based on the 80/20 rule, where 80% if your sales results come from 20% of your customers. What criteria best describes you’re A / B customers? Is it margin, volume, profits, brand, etc.? Once your sales criteria is defined for each level of customer, go to your sales data base and using the sales criteria identify your existing customers as A, B or C. Separate the A customers and create their profile based on the information on hand. You will find that there is something different about them, compared to the B’s and C’s. What is that difference? Now map that profile over to the market place for sales prospecting. Who are the A’s out there? Do the same with the B customers and identified the sales prospects for you B category in the marketplace. Also, look at your existing B customers who have potential to be come A’s.
2. Engage Prospects
Today’s economy demands engaging skills, not telling or selling skills. Engaging skills attract and engage prospects into personal and business conversations - Personal conversations to build rapport and trust; Business conversations to qualify opportunities to do business. To build that rapport, or trust, requires conversational skills focused on the prospect, not on you, your company or your products. The sales skill required here is to show a genuine personal interest in the person in front of you. You do that by asking questions, questions that they would like to respond to and talk about. Once rapport is established, you can then set conversational guidelines and proceed with qualifying questions.
3. Prescribe Solutions
By asking questions you stay in control of the sales process. This in turn allows you to qualify and then prescribe solutions - no different than what a doctor does. Prescriptions are solutions that you can provide that will solve the prospects needs,within their budget and time constraints. The objective is to sell today, based on the above, and educate them about all your other features and benefits tomorrow, after you have closed the sale. Remember, it is not about you, but engaging your prospect into buying solutions from you.
Bob Urichuck www.BobU.com
Here are my three tips for improving business:
1. Hire the best and brightest in your industry. Become a talent magnet, which will give you the talent advantage. All else pales in comparison with this. If you have the right people in the right place doing the right thing, you can't help but be successful.
2. Concentrate on strategy, not tactics. Tactics are important only insofar as they support the strategy. Otherwise, it's activity or busy work.
3. Know your competition and differentiate yourself. Give better customer service; make it easier to do business with you; offer value, not commodities.
Linda D. Henman, Ph.D.
www.henmanperformancegroup.com