What do others say

you’re selling?

     Think of every half-truth you tell (business or otherwise) as throwing a shovel full of dirt up out of the hole you’re digging for yourself! And now that you’re imagining yourself down in that hole, you might want to consider how many more shovels full it will take before the sidewalls start caving in around you. 

     Yes indeed, there are times when the truth hurts, you might say to yourself, as reason to avoid dealing with it. But you know what? NOTHING hurts more than a lie (business or otherwise). This, by the way, is not just one-on-one, person-to-person we’re talking about here. Many businesses lie to the public! (And we know about the track-record of government.)

     “Harrumph! Not me or mine,” you say. Ah, but perhaps some service you engage is lying FOR you –sort of “on your behalf”– and it never really occurred to you to call their hand. After all, they’re professionals (and probably charge professional rates!) and certainly they should know where to draw the line…the ad adgency, the Internet marketing firm, the PR and sales consultants, the lawyers.

     Are your marketing, advertising, promotion, merchandising, packaging, sales training, Internet activities, public and community and industry relations being created, prepared, produced and delivered by “outside” sources?

     Do these people really understand your business and what you need to communicate to the rest of the world? Do they care if they err on the side of exaggeration on what they believe or tell you is on your behalf? When was the last time you gave your advertising messages a lie-detector test?

     Am I trying to make you neurotic? No. Is it important to do periodic reality checks with your outside services? Yes! Why? Because –in the end–YOU are responsible. Sure advertising and public relations firms carry certain liability issues on their shoulders, but frankly, they are much more clever at avoiding trouble, covering up trouble and bailing out of trouble.

     Just as “sales” runs through the blood of your business, walking a thin line is the mantra for many outside agencies and consultants. Many often make their names and reputations on how close they can come to carrying or suggesting off-color, bad-taste, or politically-inappropriate (to your business) campaigns and themes…or making promises you can’t deliver!

     Why? Because being over-the-top can win them awards that they can self-promote to get more higher-paying clients. It’s all part of “the ad game” and “the PR game” and the “Internet and SEO game” and like the tango, it takes two. Periodic reality checks and reviews of vendor integrity can save you money and reputation.

     Odds are 100 out of 100 that your customers buy integrity. Integrity is doing the right thing even when nobody else is looking! Are you? Are those who work for you?       

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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ARE YOU

BREATHING?

1-Minute private technique kills business stress

This 4-step, on-the-spot stress management technique is being used—right this minute, as you are reading this—by millions of healthcare, business, sports, entertainment, teaching, and homemaker professionals.  It works for every age and level of health.  

It will work for you too!

# # #

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! 

Discombobulated? 

     When overwhelm strikes, like a tsunami, and you dive under the nearest pillow or cannonball into your hot tub from the second floor deck, or run screaming down the hall that little chickens are falling from the sky, you may be on the cusp of committing to some daily psychotherapy explorations, but you’re probably normal. You may simply have spent too many years locked in your office.

     We all feed ourselves to the clock and occasionally become time-stricken. Great, you say, to hear so many others share this misery, but, you say, whassup with how to get out of the clock before it chews off my feet –or head, depending on how close it was able to get to me when the hickory-dickory docked?

     The answer, my friend, is not blowin’ in the wind. It’s in chunking up your day so you’re never in any one place mentally or physically or emotionally long enough to get gobbled up by Old Man Time. In other words, start planning your daily schedule by “CHUNKS” instead of by hours.

Motivational guru Brian Tracy suggests we ask ourselves, “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” as many times as we are able to think of it, day after day.

He says that asking ourselves this question consistently makes us more productive and guarantees success.

     If you’re finding yourself lost in your work for days on end or corkscrewing yourself into a bottleneck of problem-solving, you may want to re-visit some of what you might have forgotten about the art of delegation, and you may want to simply start taking more breaks.

     Some of the world’s most UN-productive people are those who dedicate their efforts to their work so single-mindedly that they eat lunch at their desks, cannot relax around family or friends, injure themselves anytime they try some kind of exercise that takes them away from their jobs, and have to have it be a real effort…to smile ;<})

     When you can chunk up your work schedule, your exercise, family time, your goals, decision making, even travel, you will be happier, healthier, and more productive more often. Remind yourself that your body is not a machine, that you ARE your body.

     I mean imagine that carnivorous clock noted earlier eats your body, now what? What’s left? Don’t give me “heart and soul” stuff here. Think it through. You run a business. You know how to think. Do you know how to chunk it up? Give it a shot. What have you got to lose? More valueless time?    

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US     302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

You can’t control your ship

while stoking the furnace!

     What IS it that makes business owners and managers so crazy when they’re confronted with the idea of hiring someone to do a task that they know they could do themselves?  Huh? I KNOW I’m not imagining this one. So answer the question.

     Why would someone who runs a business think she or he should set up his or her own website or write her or his own blog or news release, for example? To save money? Surely saving money is not a good answer.

     As we’ve discussed here often, no one makes money by saving money. Businesses only make money by selling. If you own or operate a struggling (or ambitious) business and you decide to do tasks that are not making money by actually disengaging yourself from the sales process, you are wasting money, not saving it.

     I have seen some very bright business owners step aside from the sales function to let the salespeople do the selling, and instead focus their energies on operational productivity or human resource management, or budget management, or manufacturing efficiency, then be astonished to see their ships go down while they are busily rearranging the deck chairs.

     FACT: No one (NO ONE) is better at selling what your business produces or provides than you are! If your business is struggling (or steaming “Full Ahead”), and you are not with one hand at the controls, actively selling, you may want to re-think your investment in survival (or growth) and see the role you’re playing for what it really is: an anchor!

     If you need a new or upgraded website or a punchy blog, or news releases that get printed and broadcast, and you can find a professional website developer you can trust who has a track-record for reliability…or a professional marketing writer who knows how to “storytell” your business messages and who has a track-record for sales results, for heaven’s sake: HIRE THEM and get on with selling!

     So what if you think you could design your own site or write your own content or marketing materials? It’s not worth you taking the time to do those things when you need to be selling because selling is the only way to make money and move your ship forward.

     Pay the professionals to do what they do best. It’s a cost of doing business. Trying to tackle non-sales projects yourself diverts your time, energy and money into non-productive directions and doesn’t make the best use of your knowledge, talents, and enthusiasm. Besides, if you do-it-yourself, and screw it up, it’ll cost you twice as much to get the same professionals to do emergency surgery at sea!

     One last thought: You can control your ship and sell at the same time. You can’t control your ship while you’re stoking the furnace or working below decks. Best wishes for smoothe sailing!  

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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Train. Ask. Listen. Bend.

     First of all, there’s no reason in the world a small business needs a customer service department or customer service representatives. EVERY manager and every employee is or should be able to handle any customer complaint, concern, question or transaction. If they’re not, TRAIN them. Spend a few dollars to bring in a professional trainer (it’s cheaper than paying a rep salary or a department full of salaries).

     Periodically send a friend or relative in (physically, or by phone or email) as a “mystery shopper” to keep everyone fresh and on their toes. Tell your people of course that this will happen from time to time. You can even make a game of it with mystery shopper points for outstanding ratings, adding up to dinner for two or some inexpensive but fun reward (again, still less expensive than permanent salary or benefit increases or bonuses).

What should the training be focused on?

ASKING customers’ questions. (Not “What can I interest you in today?” or “How’s the weather outside?” or “Why don’t you want this product?”) Ask how they are or were using, or plan to use, the product? Ask what three things can you do for them right now that will help restore their confidence in your company, or how can you help them to have a positive shopping experience with your business, or what will it take to get them to return…to send their friends and relatives?

LISTENING to customers’ answers. (Not token “hearing,” but deeply listening, and understanding, and processing the comments, and paraphrasing them to make sure your understanding is correct.) The customer should do 80% of the talking. You should do 80% of the listening. Oh, and take notes. Always take notes. Nod your head. Smile. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes (empathy). Avoid crossing your arms, legs or hands. Be engaging. Use eye contact (not staring) and avoid looking past or over the person in front of you. 

BENDING to customers’ requests.This means really and truly bending over backwards to accomodate what’s asked of you. This does NOT mean you should give away the store or the farm or your sister. Don’t roll over and play dead to every request (assertive refusals can be delivered very pleasantly), but offer SOMEthing. Most people are happy with being acknowledged and listened to. Those who want more are usually happy with some token of appreciation for their forthrightness. Remember your goal needs to be to deliver exceptional attention to each customer with no exceptions. Send each one off to sell your business to others.

     If you have a small operation, with a dozen or fewer people, and want to save money, do the training yourself…but do your homework first, ask everyone to contribute a segment, and remember to practice what you preach!

     The bottom line is the old “Golden Rule” of do unto others as you would have others do unto you! There is no better approach to customer service in ANY economy. And when business is slow, there is no better approach to speeding it up! Try it! You’ll like it!     

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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Shut Your Business Down!

     Can the service your business provides be better? Are you in a position to MAKE it better? I would hope so, or you wouldn’t be likely to be visiting this blog for business owners and managers. But perhaps you think you need to live with what you’ve got?

     Maybe you feel like you just shouldn’t rock the boat? Or could it be that you might be stepping on someone else’s toes, or that service improvements wouldn’t work, or may create havoc in your industry or –let’s see– you could never get your dollar value back for the time invested?

     Anything like any of those reasons serve you as a quick answer so now you can move along to some other site? Do yourself a favor. Shut your business down tomorrow. You’re likely to have more success selling off your office or site supplies and equipment than you will staying where you are, doing what you’re doing. You find that insulting? Good! Maybe there’s hope yet.

     If the suggestion to hang up your spikes makes you angry, maybe you need to look in the mirror and shake yourself by the shoulders and breathe some new life into the services you’re providing. Making your services better is more likely, FYI, to INCREASE your business than decrease it.

     Why? Because people talk. People who get better quality services tell others, and this works much quicker and much deeper than any advertising can produce. A couple of years back, some shrewd entrepreneurs even invented the word BUZZ as the modern day equivalent of “Word of Mouth”– except that word of mouth is genuine; BUZZ is contrived.

     The point is that THIS– this economy, this time in history, this year, this month, this week– is in fact the time to start making better what you already have. Don’t let the biased mainstream news media, the zero business-experienced government, the monster union-dominated automakers, the moronic 37 trillion bank VP’s who all know less than one another convince you to sit back and take it on the chin!

     You didn’t start and grow your business to shut it down. Don’t let others lead you down the path of status quo. Now is the time to rise, to innovate, to take a fresh look at what you have, and who you have…associates, employees, customers, vendors, affiliates, neighbors, industry, community.

     How can you make more of all that now? What new ways can you pull your assets together to put yourself and your service business in a leadership position? What’s holding you back? It’s a choice. It’s your choice. 

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column). FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 239 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

Forget The 5 W’s!

     Asking and answering: Who? What? When? Where? and Why? is the stuff that reporters and PR people feed on…it’s the cornerstone of a weak corporate management mentality, and of (even weaker) government managers and directors.

     Constant attention to answering these five questions makes for useless, time-wasting pursuit for business owners, managers and entrepreneurs. Any entrepreneur worth her or his salt will typically respond “So What!” to those who exert themselves trying to provide the answers to them.

     Asking associates, employees, customers and vendors to give you the answers to Who? What? When? Where? and Why? is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to uncover the person and circumstances to place blame on when something doesn’t go right…usually as a way to cover one’s own butt! 

     And besides the fact that absolutely no one cares except those engaged in the game, it’s a complete waste of time, money and energy (and I’ll be happy to prove it; send me an email with your phone number and I’ll spell out the details in a 3-minute call!), it’s also the wrong attitude if you’re serious about growing your business.

It’s one of the most basic differences between entrepreneurial and corporate on-the-job actions, and between entrepreneurial and corporate off-the-job lifestyles.

     Which of these behavioral choices (dogged pursuit of answers to the 5 W’s, OR overlooking the 5 W’s to concentrate on the HOW?) do you think is most productive for the business? For living life? For the personal and professional growth and development of the people involved?

[If you’re not with me here,you’re a 9 to 5 guy and should just stay there, and must have gotten to this blog by mistake, and you should probably “X” out now and go get your rocks off by visiting Facebook or Disney or ESPN or something not so threatening to your mindset.]

     Is PLACING BLAME the answer in your organization? Does it seem to be an S.O.P goal? Maybe it’s time to hit the road and find a place that respects your efforts? Many of the world’s most successful and fastest-growing organizations actually REWARD what most corporate executives would certainly regard as “FAILURE.”

     Not succeeding at reaching a legitimate goal is not failure. It is instead a positive step in the direction of achieving success because it eliminates one pathway that doesn’t take you to where you want to go. So it serves to narrow down your pursuits more meaningfully.

     Still doubtful? Think about the answers you get from any human on Earth when you ask the question “WHY?” Go ahead; think about it! You get excuses, right? “WHY?” is a breeding ground for excuses.

     Try instead asking “HOW?” as in “HOW” can we perform this task more effectively next time (vs. “Why did this happen?”). HOW? “What three steps can you recommend to prevent this problem in the future?” will provide much more actionable information than a long, time-wasting autopsy which will only show what happened and who did what to whom. 

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

You’re partly pregnant? Uhuh… 

     Two months ago, I took my car to an independent service center for a quick oil change, and was told I needed a new air filter. The mechanic showed me a thin layer of gray that had settled on a few of the white edges. I was quoted some ridiculous rate for the new filter and labor. I said I’d wait ’til next time and got back a couple of tsk-tsk’s and an undertaker’s smile. 

     A few weeks ago, I took my car to the dealership it came from to have the oil changed and asked them to check the air filter. It’s fine, I was told, a little dirty but nothing to worry about…but the tires! You need four new tires and soon! We can do it now if you can wait. Only six hundred and change. Er, I think I’ll wait. Well, don’t wait too long! Right.

     Today, I got a flat tire (first one in 20-something years, so now I know I’m doomed to have to pop for the six hundred and change). But God Bless Ernie. Ernie is my neighbor who is a walking Google of auto/truck/Harley mechanic info.

     Ernie inflates my tire with his portable compressor and says that for $10 the guy up the street will plug the nailhole that caused the flat, and that if I’m getting new tires, can he have mine for driving to California and back because they’ve still got another 20,000-30,000 miles on them!

     I get the tire plugged for $10 and the tire guy says these are nice tires you have; would you consider selling them? Now I’m laughing and buying the tire guy coffee.

     What’s the point? What does “PARTLY PREGNANT” have to do with plugging tires? (Nevermind. Bad metaphor!)

Here’s the bottom line:

CONSUMER “LOW TRUST”

IS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH!

     Why? Because businesses like the service center and the dealership are ripping people off. Because these–and many other– businesses are basically greedy and have now become panic-stricken by economic impact. Because no one has ever told people like this that:

INTEGRITY IS NOT A FAIR WEATHER PRACTICE!

     Integrity is not something to be toyed with, turned on and off like a faucet, or underestimated. INTEGRITY IS DOING THE RIGHT THING ALL THE TIME REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SOMEONE ELSE IS WATCHING OR NOT! There’s no such thing as “partly pregnant” and there’s no “partial integrity” either!

When you exercise integrity, you must exercise it 100% of the time regardless of what the economy does or doesn’t do.

     The US Postal Service, airlines, ferry services, banks, and even hospitals are all adding insult to injury and they don’t even realize it (let’s at least hope they don’t). My message to all of them is that when the going gets tough financially: THE SOLUTION is NOT to raise your prices and lower your service.

     THAT is exactly the kind of thinking that has been leading us into economic spirals to begin with. THE SOLUTION is to make sales by exercising integrity…in-person, in writing, via Internet, and on the phone…consistently!    

TODAY IS NATIONAL PRAYER DAY!

PRAY FOR INTEGRITY!

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column). FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 236 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

Okay, Boss…where

do you rate yourself?

     Where do you rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest) in motivational skills?

     You’re a business owner or manager. When’s the last time you put your brain in a blender and flipped it on “Puree”? (Er, never, I hope, but then you wouldn’t likely be reading this, right?) Well, here’s the point: what methods do you use to get people to sit up and pay attention? To jump? To dive in? To follow? 

     How aware are you of the fact that if your associates and employees have the same “take” on your business that you have from the control tower, they wouldn’t be associates and employees. They’d be running their own businesses, and maybe even competing. Sooooo, maybe it’s a good time to consider some new approaches.

     Let’s start by trying something you’re probably afraid to do (most entrepreneurs are): Tune in to other people’s sensitivities, and show them that you are aware of their feelings by directly or indirectly addressing them in the meetings you run, the directions you give, the requests you make, the emails you send, the phone discussions you have.

“I realize and appreciate that some of you may feel uncomfortable about having to share the burdens of this benefit plan reduction we’re making. I know because I am experiencing this cutback as well, but for now we all need to pull together in order to survive and grow. I fully understand the added stress this decision may put on you and your family and can assure you we will make some mid-air corrections at the first possible opportunity” is better than an announcement slip in the pay envelope!

     This is not to suggest you mollycoddle (I do love that word!) every employee sensitivity or cave in to every wimpy request. But it does mean that it’s important to the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health of your organization to recognize and appreciate that leadership is often defined by one’s ability to relate to and mobilize others. The “relate to” part has to do with sensitivity.

     True leaders know their followers. They know their strengths and weaknesses, and they play to the strengths. They know how and when to challenge, and how to get the most productive efforts from each because they start with sensitivity…and then apply detective skills.

     You cannot motivate others for maximum effectiveness without knowing what makes them “tick” and without knowing what their current needs are. A trophy or plaque means nothing to someone struggling to afford new tires. A cash bonus is meaningless to someone who’s just inherited a big bank account.

     It doesn’t take as much effort as you might think to stay in touch with what your peoples’ lives are all about, and you need not step off the deep end of socializing to know how to reward and challenge appropriately and productively. 

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      . . . I’m open to your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thank you for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column). FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 233 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157

“I know how it feels to have 

wings on your heels, and to

fly down the street in a trance”

                                                              From the classic song, “HELLO YOUNG LOVERS”

     Sure you can stop to smell the flowers, but that just gives you a breather. What you really need to do is stop for a minute and remember how it feels to have wings on your heels and to fly down the street in a trance because THAT will give you M O T I V A T I O N.

     Think back to the last (or first) time you were so excited, you might as well have been flying. Go on. Do it! Think back. Remember what was going on? Remember how great you felt? Remember how you knew at that moment that you could conquer the world?

     Stay with it.

     Now, do it again. Whaaaaat? Yes, do it again! Feelings and behaviors are a choice! Sometimes choices are conscious and sometimes they are unconscious. Make a conscious choice to recreate the exhuberance you felt at that magically high moment and bring it all back into focus. Get your butt cranked up to fly through this coming week!

     Go to bed tonight convinced that you own the world (regardless of reality and woes and worries)! Be in 100% charge of your SELF and your feelings. Go to bed telling yourself:

I will awake at ___AM (insert whatever time you rise) feeling happy, healthy, rested, alert, physically fit, and ready to take in all the money that comes easily and frequently.

     Don’t question me. Don’t dismiss this. Don’t X off the page. Don’t give up on yourself! YOU OWE YOURSELF a huge, successful week. Make the choice and do it! Stop making excuses. Stop allowing (choosing for) your mind to drift back to negative, bah-humbug nonproductive ways of thinking!

     You know in your heart that you can do better, and that you need only to drive your energy with a positive thrust of attitude. TURN OFF THE 11 O’CLOCK NEWS and go to bed reciting the blue boldfaced sentence above. Go on! I dare you! Take up my dare and watch what happens! What have you got to lose? The 11 O’clock News? (It’ll be there tomorrow. Same old stuff. You won’t have missed a thing. I promise.) You might even get up on time!

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      . . . I’m open to your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thank you for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column). FEELING CREATIVE? Visit the daily growing 7-Word Story (That’s now 232 days in the making) and add your own 7 words: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=157