Empty Promises

May Win Votes,

But Not Sales!

If you can’t deliver the goods or services on time and as expected –price, performance, and warranty-wise– don’t even discuss the possibilities. Send your prospective customer/client instead to your top competitor. In fact, force yourself to even go to the trouble of introducing her or him by phone or email, or in-person whenever possible.

Hand ’em over on a silver platter

(along with a sincere smile and backpat)!

Why? Because down the road a piece (you know how far that is, right?), that person may not remember where or who she/he bought from, but you can bet your bippy that that astonished and pleased customer will never forget you for the personalized introduction to help ensure a sense of purchase satisfaction.

Remember that EVERY purchase is an emotional one, with an emotional trigger clicking into an emotional buying motive. And you will have just pulled that trigger. So the other guy got the sale. So what? In all honesty, you couldn’t have fulfilled the customer’s request anyway.

To top it off, I guarantee you that the story of you going out of your way even though you weren’t making the sale will get told to at least ten other people and each of them will tell it to ten more. For a couple of minutes of your time, you will have created 100 positive impressions!

Imagine how many people will be praising your integrity and building your reputation when you choose to make a consistent practice of focusing completely on the customer’s needs, instead of your own! 

Is this a recommendation to grow your business by sending prospects to the competition? Good heavens, no! The point is that it’s better to help people find what they want when you can’t produce it yourself than to try manipulating prospect intents, altering what you have beyond performance reality, or –worst of all– promise and not deliver.

Performance is the key word. And honesty is still the best policy. Oh, and you’ll never need (like car dealers) to talk about either performance or honesty, because people will simply know about it when your actions match your words.

AAAACK! Too Late!

Okay, if it’s too late for all that good stuff

because you already screwed up, take heart.

All is not lost.

Let’s say you’re in the roofing installation business, and you promised a prospect that you’d deliver a three trillion dollar debt ceiling with insulated, soundproof ceiling tile panels by Wednesday, and it’s Monday with no debt ceiling supplier deal in sight. You now know you should never have promised it and your knees are shaking.

Go back to “GO” and own up. Tell the truth that you over-committed and promised what you shouldn’t have. Apologize. Be sincere and empathetic. Put yourself in the customer’s (or employee’s) shoes. Listen carefully. But stand tall and don’t ooze. Offer to do whatever it takes to make amends (and be sure to follow through with overkill effort!).

If doing this results in you suffering a loss, suck it up! Bite the bullet! Eat the expense! Write it off to stupidity. Lesson learned. Time to move forward. But remember that the WAY you handle the mess and the integrity you demonstrate (even after demonstrating no integrity!) adds up to creating a new opportunity out of an old problem.

It may be true that “nothing succeeds like success,” but it’s equally true that nothing succeeds like telling the truth in failure, and making good on a failed promise. 

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  Open Minds Open Doors 

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When your business is

born of faith, you march 

to a different drum . . .

That most small business owners maintain any kind of long-term allegiance to the place their businesses were born is doubtful. Yet, as entrepreneurs, they are the most likely group to appreciate and respect the origins and uniquenesses of a business that is born of faith.

Both kinds of small business enterprise owners —those who believe their business calling comes from God, and those who don’t– experience similar dynamics, challenges, problems, and opportunities. The differences are essentially differences in attitude, motivation, and the treatment of internal and external resources.

Small businesses all suffer growing pains. And being on the cusp of economic catastrophe while getting bludgeoned by over-taxation without representation (considering the SBA is a joke) and by over-regulation from a naive, misguided, rampaging  White House that appears intentionally and spitefully clueless, doesn’t help.   

Not many corporate giant, union, or government career types would understand the dynamics, challenges, problems, and opportunities faced daily by small business –any kind of small business– let alone the charitable, servant leadership nature of a business that is faith-based.

Entrepreneurs of every ilk recognize that their own and others’ existences depend on their own initiatives. Unlike corporate and government counterparts, when you own and/or manage a small business, and you’re too hungover to get out of bed in the morning, there’s no option for tossing it off by calling in to take a “sick day”

When you skip work or drag in hours late because you’re feeling depressed or had an upsetting incident at home, or simply didn’t want to face up to a scheduled meeting with a disgruntled partner or financial supporter, or an irate customer, what happens? The business suffers. Do it too often and the business folds.

But when your business is firmly grounded in commitments to serving God by serving all others who come into contact with your enterprise, you have a different perspective on what’s important.

Secular, or non-spiritually-based businesses exist to make money. They are primarily devoted to satisfying their principals and their investors with profits. Faith-based businesses exist to make money to distribute more to their employees, their communities, and to become stronger resources for charitable giving.

Many secular businesses will put income-source customers first and actually disregard their employees, vendors, and “outside” consultants and sales reps. Financial gain and competitive edge become the driving forces. Faith-based businesses typically seek to embrace everyone equally, seeking to distribute trust, respect, and opportunities.

Most secular businesses consider community support efforts non-essential line items to abandon when economic uncertainty drives budgetary belt-tightening. Faith-based businesses facing the same financial stresses may simply switch gears to make their community contributions ones of time and effort, or expertise, or goods and services.

Having had the privledge of working extensively in both secular and faith-based business arenas, I frequently hear questions about what the differences and similarities are. This post is intended to address a few of my observations. They may not all be correct, and certainly they are not all-inclusive.

Can you add some comments

from your experiences? 

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Labor Day Leftovers . . .

White House, union thugs

seek to rally violence,

DE-Americanize 

small business.

On –of all days– Labor Day, and in –of all places– Detroit, home of the highest unemployment rate in the US (nearly 16%!), we get bone-chilling reports of attempts to incite violence from two LINOs (Leaders In Name Only).

The spitting of vicious words was barely even acknowledged by mainstream media.  “Union King” Jimmy Hoffa, Jr, and Mr. O combined efforts to threaten violence (and ignore that it was even a threat!).

Over-the-top Junior Hoffa shouted out a rally cry to:

“Take out those (Tea Party)

sons of bitches”

. . . as part of his rant and rave Labor Day speech. This kind of inflammatory rhetoric has no place in a democratic society, and has even less of a place coming from the mouth of a purported “leader.”

Mr. O, in an disgraceful throw-back to Chicago thug days, made no attempt to soften the comments or language, and –in fact, just seconds later– proceeded to praise Hoffa.

Pretty amazing behavior for a man who claims to embrace peace and forgiveness over violence (reference his 2008 campaign speeches), eh? 

If any of us (among 30 million small business owners) were ever to make such inciteful fist-thrusting comments about business competitors, we would be out of business (or in jail) by 9am tomorrow.

How is it even possible that such low-life comments can be made in public? Freedom of speech? HA! How about inciting a riot? How about defamation? How about common courtesy? How about considering the impact on young people? How about having a brain?

But then, perhaps it’s just more reinforcement that politics is a career for the brainless, yes?

What’s the bottom line?

The enemy of small business

is the constant exposure

to hateful politics,

So, do we swear off of politics? Well, first of all, such an intention (like those that pave that famous road) might sound honorable, but it’s really not possible unless you do a guru-on-the-mountaintop thing. Politics invades every inch of our lives, and the worst of it dominates. Well, we could always avoid the media, right?

How is it, for example, that the nation awaits Mr. O’s much-too-long-overdue promise of a job speech and supposed plan (that was needed three years ago!), while we ignore Mitt Romney’s thoughtful, reasonable, and immediate business-positive plan to reverse our dying economy?

How do meaningful and positive suggestions from those who embrace Tea Party thinking get immediately dismissed by the ruling Socialist radicals without giving even the time of day?

Why must the White House expend more time and money and energy seeking re-election votes than tending to the immediate needs of the American people? What about righting our sinking economic ship instead of praising the ignorance of an empty-suit union leader because he controls large blocs of votes?

Icing on the cake:

Mr. Biden today called

Tea Party supporters:

“Barbarians”!

Talk about unbelievable

It really is getting close to that time when the present anti-business (and especially anti-small business) White House must be upended and removed from office. Are you speaking out? Are you taking steps to initiate action — to motivate and inspire others to the importance of choosing America’s direction and the direction of small business.

Are you ready to thrive again? Are you ready to help ensure return to our free enterprise small business system that has always been the backbone and heart of our nation? November 6, 2012. Be there. 

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302.933.0116   Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make Today a GREAT day for someone! 

Marketing, advertising,

PR and sales

industry-specific 

experience?

Worthless.

An Opinion 

SALES

Give me a guy who can sell ketchup, propane, decorative plants, dental insurance, or rubberbands any day over a techie geek to sell your iPads, TVs, Wii programs, or Kindles. Geeks sell geeks. Sales pros sell people. Why think small when your opportunities are big? The geek market is small. Find people who are experts at serving customers, and teach them product/service knowledge.

Looking for an exceptional salesperson for your new snack products? Stop looking in the snack product industry. Find someone who sells railroad cars full of dorm furniture to universities. Surgical supplies? Get your search engine out of the med school dropout arena and find a classy cosmetics presenter with a sparkling, eager-to-learn  personality.

Oh, and remember that great salespeople don’t make great sales managers. Only great managers make great sales managers.

PR

Find a freelance writer who has some psychology background and who can write some slam-bang persuasive headlines and sentences for all kinds of products and services– someone who is tenacious in follow-up efforts. Forget about established, specialist PR firms and groups who tend to be more interested in their names than yours. 

The public relations field is a breeding ground for con artists. I’ve seen top PR firms charge $25,000 a month and produce zero. If they can’t make what you have to sell be exciting, you lose. If they can’t follow up fanatically to get writers, reporters, editors, producers, and publishers pouncing on your story, you lose. You can teach someone with diverse quality PR experience about your industry media. 

ADVERTISING

Skip right over any provider who claims expertise in your field, unless you’re willing to spend lots of money to make no impact. Hospital advertising is a great example. It’s pathetic. Does “Excellent People” and “We Care” float your boat? Hospitals and banks are the perfect examples of advertising waste.

Get a person or small team on board who want to help you make a difference, who know how to ignite and cultivate creative thinking applications that get results. Just because something looks nice and is clever or informative doesn’t mean that it works. It may only mean that the agency is seeking to win a design award.

Don’t settle. Do your homework and due diligence. Then teach her/him/them about your business and industry.

MARKETING

Not “marketing” like healthcare people think: physician office visits with armsful of popcorn, candy, 6-foot subs, sports and concert tickets. That’s called payola, as in bring ’em gifts and they’ll prescribe or recommend or buy your products. It’s also called bribery, and it borders on STARK Law and other ethical violation issues. 

And not marketing like Fortune 500 companies hellbent on analysis paralysis before even considering a potential packaging design, pricing structure, promotional flyer, merchandising gimmick or ad headline. Part of why big companies have too much at stake to be entrepreneurial has to do with the astronomically wasted expenses involved in frivolous product and service development and meaningless market research.

You don’t need an army of “experienced (Fill in any specialty here) marketing pros.” You need a person or small team who have a proven track-record for producing results in a variety of fields. Diversity, flexibility, and common sense abilities to work with an Objective/Strategy/Tactics framework in all types of media are what count more than “industry-specific.”

P.S. Beware “Social Media Marketing Experts” who don’t understand marketing. There are plenty of them. 

THE KEY

It’s easy to teach experienced marketing/advertising/sales/PR people what they need to know about your product or service to most effectively represent it. But it’s nearly impossible to teach industry and professional practice-specific experienced people how to market, advertise, publicize and sell.

Specialization Closes Minds 

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America’s

“Childish” President

is Using America’s

30 Million

Small Business Owners to 

Play Politics Instead of

Fix the Economy 

Okay, so just a couple of hours after this post was written, the man has backed down from his one-upmanship scheduling of his “Jobs Speech” and will instead deliver it the following night. While I’d like to think my post and others had some impact, truth is that Mr. O realized a bigger better political advantage to moving his appointed time out from under the GOP Debate.

The bottom line is nothing else in this post changes: Don’t expect anything new, and don’t expect jobs to come begging for employees. You can be certain more taxes are on the way to fund the man’s extremist plans to spread the wealth . . . and now, of course, to spread the fantasy jobs!

~~~~~~~~

Mr. O has suddenly scheduled what will inevitably be great oratory on our catastrophic quagmire of an economy –that he has compounded at every turn and hasn’t been able to do a single constructive thing about since 2008 — for 8PM, Sept. 7th.

He takes a childish posture in setting his stage at precisely the same time as the long-planned GOP Presidential Candidate’s debate . . . and then he says the responses to his one-upmanship are “childish.”

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black?

~~~~~~~~

Why should we small business owners and entrepreneurs and managers care?

First, because business owners want to hear how other Presidential candidates plan to fix the economy that Mr. Obama has failed to fix.  

Second, because it’s been proven ad nauseam and reinforced by every economist worth her or his salt that the only road to economic recovery is for government to WHOLEHEARTEDLY support and encourage new business job development by entrepreneurs.

~~~~~~~~

The White House knows this and has intentionally ignored thousands of opportunities to initiate tax incentives for new business job creation and tax incentives for new business innovation (leading to job creation). So, why now? November 6, 2012 is right around the corner. Why a Sept. 7th 8pm speech? Because politics beats reality.

No need to be a brain surgeon to understand this. Any small business owner or legitimately unemployed person gets the reality of it. Why doesn’t the White House? This hyped up speech will –I guarantee– be about nothing realistic. The opportunity for that has already come and gone more times than the EverReady Rabbit! 

Mr. O will pay token attention to small business, but never reach out a true helping hand. He will bury nice-sounding words in meaningless rhetoric. And therein lies the problem:

America needs jobs. New small business provides virtually all new jobs. America’s 30 million small business owners do not trust Mr. Obama. Period.

Why should anyone capable ofr creating new jobs create new jobs because of promises from a man who has a long track-record of not keeping promises? I create 50 new jobs because the government assures me of new job salary rebates or some other fantasyland benefit. The promise collapses. I am stuck with 50 people I can’t afford.

~~~~~~~~

The Issue Is TRUST.

This White House has failed to earn the trust of small business over and over and over again.

Without trust, there can be no relationship.

There can be no deal.

There can be no forward movement.

There can be no salvaging The Great Obama Depression.

There can be no economic recovery.

There can, and undoubtedly will be a lot of talk and a lot of smiles and a lot of handshakes and reassuring references and pats on the back. But –mark my words– it will all be for show. This is simply one more campaign op! Surely the Republican Debate will crank out more business-friendly job creation proposals.

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 Your Advisory Board

includes a lawyer, 

an accountant, your

rich uncle, and

your pastor?

Nope.

Well maybe one or two of those types do actually hold court with you once a quarter or twice a year and offer trusted advice and opinions about where your enterprise appears to be headed . . . and maybe you listen, and maybe you don’t. And maybe they’re helpful. And maybe they’re not.

After all, typically, they’re not paid. And you do remember that someone once told you you get what you pay for? Ah, but a good advisory board is usually made up of people who have a physical or emotional investment in seeing you succeed. And that trumps paying a fee for services. 

No compensation? Well, maybe some coffee and donuts — or fruit, cheese, and crackers, depending on your level of health-nuttiness. Wow! So now you’ll read a little further?

Advisory Boards, generally, are a good thing for most small business ventures because –when they include a small group of diverse, talented people who like and care about you– they can shed light on your darkness and provide enough reassurance or guidance to afford you to step back and observe your brainchild firsthand.

Advisory Boards provide a sense of reality you might not otherwise solicit or be exposed to.”

Okay, you’ve got all that. And it either sparks an idea, or it just lays there flat on its back, rolling its eyes at you! Well, here’s a definite sparkler:

Start a Rotating Teenage Advisory Board.

Huh? Why? Why not? When did you last waltz a thirteen-year-old boy or girl through your place of business and ask him or her for observations?

I promise you he/she will see things you never noticed, and maybe never even thought about. Does it matter that your business makes products or delivers services for nursing homes (whoops, how un-PC of me: long-term care facilities)? Or nursing mothers? Or male nurses? Truck drivers? Scuba divers? (It rhymed!) No it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you regularly host small groups of teens through your office, plant. store, or worksite, and that you non-judgmentally LISTEN to what they have to say, and keep a journal or take dated notes of key comments. Pay careful attention to the questions they ask (and how they ask them) before trying to answer them.

It’s true that teenagers (as when each of us were) are different, weird, and aloof.

They are preoccupied with texting, handheld electronics, and each other.

They may seem the least unlikely to contribute anything of value to a non-teenage market business.

Yet –refreshingly– they lack developed prejudices.

They are naive and breed a rare perspective of business innocence.

You can learn more and spark more ideas from one business visit by a youngster, or two or three than you are likely to from ten top industry or profession muckity-mucks who will surely carry competition chips on their shoulders, and be more inclined to maintaining a political edge.

One business I heard of makes a practice of gathering small groups of teens from the local middle school and high school (pre-arranged of course with the parents, but not with school administrators who would tangle up the process) and rewarding them with praise, snacks, juice, and bookstore gift cards for bright ideas offered.

The owner has translated teen visitor input into new product launches, line extensions, and revenue streams, that produced enough income to allow some scholarship funding in return. What can you get? What can you give?

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If I had my life to live over

If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously.

I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I’m one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it over again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.”

   

— Nadine Stair, 85 years old (in 1968), Louisville, Kentucky

(Links inspired by these words were inserted by Hal)

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SURPRISE HURRICANE-PROMPTED SUNDAY POST TONIGHT. NEXT POST MONDAY OR WHEN POWER IS ON. PLEASE CHECK BACK . . .

Another storm,

another dollar.

 Hey, life happens. 

Stop whining!

Besides,

breathing beats cash.

There comes a time (a few actually) in every life, when we business owners and entrepreneurs must take a back seat to Mother Nature. You DO remember her? I’m not talking about over-the-top dirtpeople, or eco-freaks who launch themselves into hysteria with every stepped-on ant or toilet flush.

I’m referring to cataclysmic shifts in the planetary forces of nature that stop businesses dead in their tracks, that cannot be dismissed or disregarded or wiggled around. I know it’s hard to own up to the fact that anything could be more important than business . . . yet, looming out there under the signs, ads, and brochures, is life!

Here we quake-inexperienced East-Coasters are emerging out of an unheard of earthquake, the 5.8 magnitude of which –though nonchalantly considered routine by West Coast standards (I mean, what isn’t?)– was sufficient test of our mettle . . . and: CABOSH! Along comes a Hurricane heralded as major by all the IM (Irresponsible Media).

I’m reminded of Rob Bell’s quote in his courageous, easy-read book, LOVE WINS.  The quote refers to tangles born of the politics of religion, but seems to me to fit the media hurricane circus and pandemonium we’ve been bombarded with for five days:

“Sometimes what we are witnessing

is simply a massive exercise

in missing the point.”

Who’s not fed up with mainstream media’s overkill –and frequently contrived– “storm tracking” coverage? Enough already! Sports belong to ESPN; leave hurricanes to TWC. Stop with all the prima donna network weather forecasters (Whoops, I mean “Meteorologists”) who can barely find the maps they swoop their hands over. 

Of course no one wishes storm destruction and risks of life and injury to others, and of course there are many calls for reminders to be prepared in an impending hurricane but please, media people . . . give us a break. Your relentless focus on doom and gloom, is –all by itself– enough to send people flying off city rooftop gardens!

Well, okay, your heavy-handed scare tactic broadcasts did at least serve to convince Mr. O that he’d be storm-safer at the White House than puttering around a reported $50,000 vacation week (his tenth this year? Must be nice) Martha’s Vineyard golfcourse.

Who could deny the (rapidly-growing-in-popularity)

  Obama Regime motto: “Leadership from behind”? 

No doubt whatsoever he will once again seize the opportunity of a natural disaster to represent his sleeves-rolled-up self in the role of “return of the conquering and compassionate hero.” As business owners and managers, we have already seen too much of this too often. Were we to practice such falsity, our businesses would crumble.

Also without a doubt, we can count on the talking heads at CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT and their affiliate braindead-behaving editors at The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, et al, to play it out for all the advertising dollars their sadly misguided Obama-obsessed bosses can muster.

The point that’s missed by all the sensationalist journalists is that the public gets it. Go through the updates and recommended preparation steps at scheduled news broadcasts. If and when the event actually occurs, lead up to it with information, not Chicken Little alarmist reports. Who cares what trees fell in Bongo-Bongo?

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I learned the hard way. 

Burning bridges might 

 work for “isolationists,”

but . . .

But even if you’re the owner of the most microscopically small home business being run out of an empty closet, you cannot afford to be caught with a “smoking match.”

When you cut off communications with people or organizations –whether intentionally or inadvertently makes no difference–  you cut off future options and opportunities that you may never imagine being possible right now. And when you least expect it, it will surely come back to bite you in the butt. 

It should go without saying that this bridge-burning dynamic applies equally to all of us as individuals as well.

How did I learn the hard way?

At many levels, I had to fight my way through childhood poverty and abuse, through high school insensitivities, college insecurities, impersonal graduate school, and the disillusioning beginning-a-career years. I beat my way through the bushes and put on a happy face, but I used my struggling existence as an excuse for aloofness.

Former (far wealthier) classmates disbursed to all corners of the globe with pocketsful of parent’s money? What did I care? I’d never see them again anyway. They served me no immediate survival purpose. Screw ’em. I was preoccupied with affording clothes, a car, and often, a next meal. How could I relate to summers in Europe?

I chose to feel bitter. For awhile I held grudges. But those feelings never lasted because they left no room for me to earn my keep and work my way up the corporate ladders that I saw as my only escape route. It was something like a forced retreat from upset feelings because upsets didn’t pay bills. I had no room left for anger.

The end result was the same.

Burned bridges.

I never intended to sever relations with those in my various graduating classes, and in steppingstone jobs.

It just happened.

Yet the consequences of often having no place to turn when a turn was necessary were no less difficult to bear than had I actually set the connecting spans on fire.

Ill feelings can obviously (now, in retrospect) trigger a conscious or unconscious desire to disconnect from the circumstances or people responsible for igniting various upsets, but what I’ve learned the hard way (after losing many close contacts over time) is that effort invested in long-term relationships can often produce great returns.  

It’s water over the proverbial dam at this point, and my life has been graced so many times over with strong business and personal relationships (that I finally did learn how to hold on to and nurture and enjoy), that I can only be grateful for them and for what they have made possible. Yet, there’s still this twinge of regret.

Perhaps you or someone you know will be prompted to think twice before cutting ties or burning bridges after hearing this (true) short story from someone (me) who almost learned too late the deep values of long-term relationships — in life and in work. When did you last give someone the benefit of doubt? Forgiveness works!

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Here’s a “glue clue” for you!

Someone in your family or on your business or advisory team is the one who most holds you and the million little pieces of your business enterprise together. Who? How? Why? What have you done for her or him lately?

Did you know that small, frequent rewards (and typically inexpensive ones) are at least twice as effective as one large one? Did you know that cash –even in this struggling economy– is not always the best reward? Have you discovered (or been reminded lately to re-visit) Maslow’s Hierarchy?

After many decades, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory continues to be business’s most effective tool for motivating employees, partners, referrers and sales personnel, among others. No need for a degree in nuclear reactor dynamics to put this classic theory to work for your small business.

It simply takes a sense of diligence 

and a little detective-type methodology.

When you make a habit of taking ongoing temperature readings of, for example, employee hot and cold buttons, you gain a sense of what makes each one tick and how various life changes impact attitudes. This gives you leverage for better motivating because you can reward someone’s performance with what that person values.

All of us are located somewhere on the Maslow Hierarchy ladder (or pyramid as many management textbooks illustrate it. At any given moment in time we are either at a level of basic physiological needs, or safety needs, or social needs, or esteem needs, or we are at a point of self-actualization.

We move fluidly back and forth between these different need levels according to our daily (sometimes hourly)changing life circumstances. A person who has achieved a state of self-actualization, who is feeling self-fulfilled could tumble back down to a basic needs level in an instant.

Consider how fast your brain snaps back to basics as the result of a family death, a bankruptcy, an accident, a job-firing . . . from really, any kind of loss.

After years of having no financial worries, putting food on the table can become a sudden challenge. Having a neighboring home or business robbed can immediately cause someone at an esteem level, who is excited about winning recognition, into a security needs frenzy, shopping for insurance, alarm systems, new locks, a fence. 

If you can be aware enough of changing need levels for individual “glue people” who help hold you and/or your business together, you can reward each –at her or his personal level– for maximum impact. An esteem-needs person will often be more receptive to a plaque, a news release feature, or a certificate than to a cash bonus.

Someone struggling with car issues will appreciate new tires, an oil change or gas allowance. One successful business owner covers the cost of braces for a low-salaried employee’s teenager. Another sends top sales people on limo trips with spouses to shows and dinner (less expensive than permanent salary and commission raises).

The point is to pick out rewards that fit the person and the circumstances instead of making across-the-board judgements about what you think will motivate best. And don’t automatically assume it’s money. In fact, by targeting rewards to individuals, you can save huge amounts of money and earn great appreciation in the process. 

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

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