STOP THE GOOD

GREEN CITIZEN B.S.!

     This past week, I passed a dozen retail stores at night with their electric-lighted signs shut off. My opinion? Sheer stupidity that will end up as self-fulfilling prophesy. [My opinion? Nighttime or otherwise, “A business with no sign is a sign of no business!”]

     One major mall-anchor department store I went into had the escalator to the second floor turned off. “Well,” an ernest young employee I asked about it, told me, “we haven’t had enough shopper traffic since the Christmas rush to warrant the overhead costs. At least that’s what the boss told us.” [My opinion? Idiotic, panicky, self-defeating, misguided management.] 

     A retail warehouse shopping club I visited last week had half their lights off with a placard at the entrance explaining that they were “practicing energy conservation and good citizenship by not being a drain on community electric supplies.” [My opinion? That’s B.S.!]

     Pretty opinionated, huh? Well somebody’s gotta do it. Why not me?

     What’s happening here is that businesspeople who should know better have simply stopped thinking. They are all examples of smokescreen public relations, and of admitting that they have run dry on the kinds of innovative thinking that must emerge as pervasive in business today to survive and thrive in this lousy economy.

     “Lousy” economy? Yup. (Sorry; don’t shoot the messenger!) It is frankly not getting better any time soon (until GENUINE small business job creation incentives exist, and with all the token lip-service plans afoot, plus a zero-experienced government running the show, it’s going to be quite a while!).

     Unfortunately, the environment has become a scapegoat excuse for many businesses to cut back on expenses. It’s ludicrous to think that electric lighting cutbacks are substantial enough to offset the reality of lost business, or to think (and proclaim no less) that lower electric usage is benefitting society, and that customers should applaud shopping in the dark and hiking up stationary escalators.

     Here, ladies and gentlemen, is what’s at the heart of this blog message:

Utility cutbacks do not produce sales!

     Sales are what make business go. Sales are what stimulate small business to create jobs. Some may think it sounds good, but the truth is that GREEN is OUT right now. No one — outside of a ten-minute ring around Washington, DC, or Hollywood, cares. Show people how they’ll benefit by your products and services, and don’t allow others to make feeble excuses for their own incompetency in value-adding and catering to customer service initiatives.

     Or let your people focus on cost savings instead of sales … and die on the vine.

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 LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP? See Hal’s 12/30 Guest Blog Post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 WONDERING WHEN NO is Better Than MAYBE? See Hal’s 1/6 Guest Blog Post in BonMot Communications’ Angelique Rewer’s FREE HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED e-zine www.thecorporatecommunicator.net 

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 The birds and the bees and

the geese and the trees all

communicate better than

you!

At least, that’s what the odds are. They all spend their lives at communicating. You probably spend yours energizing your business, and not giving a whole lot of thought to keeping those around you informed or engaged in dialogue any more than you think you need to, right?

Ah, but energizing your communications is the highest form of energizing your business.

Well, even if this assessment is only partly right, it still means you are completely wrong. Sorry for the hard line here but I don’t imagine you’ll get much tough talk from those who work for you, or from your mother or your dog. And a good swift kick in the butt can sometimes get the head in gear if you know what I mean.

Are you communicating too little to your associates and staff? (Do they tilt their heads and squint a lot?) Or perhaps you tell them too much? (Do they nod politely and look at their watches a lot? Pull up the sidewalks and get outta Dodge if they start listening to their watches!)

Or do you communicate just the right amount? How can you know what the right amount is? (Do your people sit up or lean forward and ask questions? Do they take notes? Do they ask for examples? Do they repeat what you said to make sure they’ve got it right?

HA! Do YOU do these things?

How often do you engage those around you in real heart-to-heart business discussions? Do you directly ask for their opinions, and actually l~i~s~t~e~n to their responses?

Did you realize that MBWA (Management By Walking Around) is still considered the approach of preference for most successful owners, operators, managers, and virtually all entrepreneurial leaders? People like to have you visit their work sites and talk with them about what they’re doing.

When you can do this every day, you are helping ensure greater attention to detail and pride of workmanship. Plus you can leave when you want to, and it’s  good exercise. It will keep you in touch with what’s going on in your business day to day, and will even discourage time-wasting activities.

Have you thought lately about the direct relationship between taking your people into your confidence and the boost it gives their self-esteem to know that you (their surrogate parent) regard them highly enough to confide in them, to ask their opinions?

Did you know that every time you help boost an associate or employee’s self-esteem, you are also helping to build her or his self-confidence, and that — all by itself — can produce increases in both productivity and sales?

Like the most effective rewards, communications are best delivered frequently and in small energetic doses … “bursts,” if you will. Remember you want what you say to be contagious because motivated employees who feel they are making a worthwhile contribution will outperform your expectations (and your competitors!) every time.

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   Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Is Your Vision Statement A Mission?

Does Your Mission Statement

Have Vision?

You’re getting ready for 2010 and you’re confused?

Gee, hard to imagine.

Just because the media and politicians tell us the economy is getting better? Just because we’re looking at a healthcare reform proposal that has absolutely nothing to do with healthcare? Just because enemy combatant terrorist situations surface from circumstances that we’re assured do not exist? Just because global warming hoaxsters had us running to refrigeration investments? 

     We’re probably feeling like confusion is nothing new, right? So why not live with a little more? 

     Well, here’s why: The business you own or manage doesn’t need to be as misguided and convoluted as politicians and the media. Remember they get paid for creating confusion. Your success depends on keeping things simple.

     Keeping things simple starts with attitude, awareness, and hard work.

     First off, don’t let anyone tell you to work smarter and not harder. That’s baloney! Every business success comes from hard work. Next, don’t let people confuse you about the characteristics and values of Mission and Vision Statements. [No, they are NOT the same!]

     A Mission statement is essentially a declaration of intent, challenge and pursuit. It is your goal statement that clearly and succinctly explains what you plan to accomplish over what specific period of time and by what means. It is action-focused.

     And, like every meaningful goal, your Mission Statement needs t0 be specific, flexible, realistic and have a due date. [Without all four criteria, you’ve nothing more than a wishlist fantasy!] 

     A Vision statement is a summation of where you see your business in 5-10 years. It is a picture you paint in your mind and share with others. It answers the question: If you succeed in your mission, where will you be?

     It’s a set of words that best describes what you imagine to be your future state of existence, and how you expect (hope) to be viewed by others: your employees, associates, vendors, customers, markets, industry or profession, and community. It is dream-focused. It’s primary value is to inspire pursuit of your Mission. 

What’s your Mission for 2010? What’s your Vision for 2020?

     Oh, and in the same fashion that it helps to start ANY mission with 20/20 vision, it is often most useful to put your 2020 Vision on the table (to keep focused on it) while you develop your 2010 Mission (or while you think up the ways to get where you want to end up).  

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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Happy Christmas

Recovery Time!

     SO … Answer these 10 questions for yourself about your SELF, and then answer the same 10 for your BUSINESS.

     If you are totally honest with yourself about your SELF and with yourself about your BUSINESS, you will positively gain some important insight!

•      What didn’t work this past year? (Not “why?” which may take another year to answer)

•      And what, pray-tell, is working NOW? 

•      What needs to be eliminated? 

•      What will work going forward? 

•      What needs to be reevaluated?  

•      What needs to be fixed?  Adjusted?  

•      Completely overhauled? 

•      What needs to be attempted? 

•      What needs to be planned? 

     Remember, this is YOUR business and YOUR self we’re talking about here, so ONLY YOU can decide where to go next and ONLY YOU can choose how to get there. ONLY YOU know the real answers to all the questions about growing your self and your business! 

     And you can take hours researching and surveying, but the bottom line is –dear entrepreneur, dear business owner and manager– that in the end, YOU must charge forward by experience, instinct, and informed subjective judgement. 

     YOU must take REASONABLE risks to improve your SELF and your BUSINESS!

     What you choose as a course of action may be wrong, but:

A. SOME action is always better than no action, and

B. YOU are the captain of your ship, and YOU can adjust the course you’re taking at any hour of the day or night. Or, simply put into port for a short lay-over to get yourself more focused. Just choose what you want  (since all behavior is a choice!). 

     No excuses here. You need to be your own consultant. Step back. Take some deep breaths (For your SELF, for your BUSINESS, for your SPORTS performance, for your SALESMANSHIP, for your LIFE!) Oh, and after you breathe, get hopping! 

     The New Year’s bell is ready to ring. Are you ready to run? Have a Happy! 

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Get your fingers out

 of other people’s pies!

You may be the boss. But don’t stick your nose into the creative process that’s being strategized or implemented by the writer(s) and/or designer(s) YOU hire. When you’re paying an individual or team to create your branding message, advertising, packaging, promotion, public relations, website, or Internet marketing: Back Off The Process!

If you’ve done your job up front by hiring top talent to begin with, leave it be. You risk losing personal respect, leadership control (including the ability to motivate), sales, and even market and industry stature by interfering in his, her, or their work in progress.

I’m NOT suggesting you don’t VERY carefully explain the perspective and posture you want to see be used in representing your business at the very beginning of the creative process. You need also to insist on a “How Goes It?” review / inventory / status or progress report half-way through the creative process.

And you positively must review every word and every graphic treatment BEFORE it’s released or launched or distributed, and offer an honest critique … which, btw, is usually better accomplished with questions than with judgement statements.

It’s your company and YOU are ultimately responsible for every verbal and every visual message conveyed. [And ad agencies and marketing groups — even in-house — love to walk the thin line of public acceptability and appropriateness; it wins them awards!]

But just because you think you’re a “creative whiz” and know how to write a nice email or drum up some sizzling topic for your kid’s science fair entry, or can draw cute pictures that always amuse people, do NOT think that you can match those you’ve entrusted to do the job!

If you were that talented at design or writing, you’d be a designer or writer. It’s just another way of expressing the old management theorem: Stick To Your Knitting! Creative people are not likely to be able to match your entrepreneurial drive and management / organizational and financial know-how. Tech people are, incidentally, the least creative.

Get the best people you can find to do the job, give them your input, take their pulse at the fifty-yard line, double-check their final product, but let them do the job.

I have seen countless great marketing, sales, and advertising campaigns be ruthlessly and unwittingly aborted by well-intentioned top management who haven’t a clue about how to connect their messages to their target markets.

No time to do all that creative process management stuff? Lacking the sensitivity to deal with the writers and designers? Not sure how to best direct or coach them? Call me. If I can’t do it for you, in a consulting role, I’ll find someone who can. [302.933.0116]

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Got Good Advice?

     If you’re putting all your business eggs  in one consultant or one consulting group basket, don’t give your business long to live! It may be time to remind yourself that your business is your baby, that you’ve worked hard to get it up and on its feet, and toddling forward. Sure it will fall on its face a few times, but YOU are the only one who can get it back on track.

     When you hire a consultant or consulting firm  and expect her/him/it to get all your ducks in a row, you’re headed for Disneyland! And given the kinds of fees being charged these days, you may also be on your way to the poorhouse.

     It’s an age-old proven fact  that the best solution to ANY organizational problem lies WITHIN the organization. The challenge therefore is HOW to draw it out, not to decide on what consultant to hire to analyze it to death and make recommendations you don’t need!

     Except for highly technical consultants, no consultant (inside OR outside) can waltz in  and pinpoint a management or organizational solution direction for you to follow. My best guess is that that person or “team” will be wrong more than 99% of the time. Why?

IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM,

YOU CAN’T BE PART OF THE SOLUTION

BECAUSE YOU’LL NEVER FULLY GRASP THE PROCESS!

     You own or run or manage the company  and that means YOU are the only one who can understand and guide the unique solution process as it exists in your unique organization. The ball’s in your court. You can get consulting HELP, but in the end it will always have to be your solution and your decision.

     Soooooooooo — why do you want to pay  for one support entity when you can have 5 or 7 (odd number recommended) support entities helping you FOR FREE? Huh? The best consulting help you can engage will be to help you engage an advisory board that can help steer your ship while you sleep or visit the head!

     You will probably also do this task better by yourself,  but — in starting an advisory board — objective, outside input can be valuable. Start with people you trust who you know agree with the general growth directions you plan, and who are willing to commit time and energy. They need not agree with you on the details of how to get there, but that’s okay.

     Reward them  by serving food and snacks at meetings; give them free samples of products and/or allow them “family” discounts on services. Treat them special. Require confidentiality but be 100% honest with them, and cultivate a high trust level with each. Keep them informed of both good and bad news.

     Call them together quarterly, monthly when needed. Don’t ever waste their time. Always have pre-circulated agendas of problem-solution issues and bring key employees in to present the details. Stick to the agendas. Give out assignments. Have goals of leaving meetings with solutions. Work it.

     Yes, it’s work,  but you’ll get better input, free, from people who feel they have a stake in the contributions they make, and whose input wins your respect. They will also end up being your best salespeople!

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STOP HIRING CONSULTANTS

(for the wrong reasons!)

Dear Business Owners and Managers: Stop with the knee-jerk decisions to hire consultants. They will not help you through the economy unless they are specialists at bringing sales in your door!

Until at least a couple of years down the road,  there is no need for “communication consultants” or “management trainers” or “personal growth and development consultants” or people to write your mission statement, your vision statement, your annual reports or your “white papers.”

How do I know? Because I’ve done all of the above (and made a successful career of it), but I also have run my own business for 35 years, and helped to start hundreds of others. I’ve run management and communication and personal growth and development training programs for 20,000 people. And I’ll be the first to tell you not to waste your time and money on these services, in this economy.

There is only one thing you need consultant support for these days, and that is for services that bring you sales. Period.

That having also been said,  I will be so bold as to suggest that communications and marketing generalists are also not the kinds of “sales consultants” to trust. Find a specialist. Do not EVER hire a marketing or communications consulting firm to do your website. Get a website specialist. Do not EVER hire a website specialist to write your website content. Get a writer who understands sales.

A good, proven commercial / marketing / advertising / website writer can do more for your business than all the ad agencies, marketing and communication consultants and non-sales trainers you can find put together! You need writing help? Hire a writer!

There is a growing temptation to panic at the financial strangulation your cutbacks have created, and grasp at any outside service that –like the frustrated wife whose husband  was a marketing executive and could only ever sit on the edge of the bed and talk about how great it would be– you simply cannot afford right now.

Promises do not perform. Providers with track-records for creating and delivering sales perform, and are worth paying! Look for a successful writer who is a quick study and who shows you she or he can learn your business promptly, who has a customer benefit focus instead of a chest-beating, “how great your business is” and product / service features focus.

You want someone who can help you develop sales strategies and and create the tactics that support that thinking. You want someone who is not afraid to work weekends or evenings to get the job done.

You want someone who will take the extra step, go the extra mile, and give you more than what you expect … someone who is both a talented writer and an example of what you want and expect from a sales pro.

Anyone who fits this profile,  by the way, should also be receptive to at least partial compensation based on performance. I know a lot of consultants will hate me for this post, but –down deep– they’ll have to admit that I speak the truth.

# # #

EX-employees can

be your best sales source!

     Remember that young dude  you liked who used to work for you? He was the guy who moved too fast for others in the department, and never seemed challenged enough, but there were no quicker-paced jobs open at the time, and he left for parts unknown? Well, he’s back in town and working for one of your major suppliers!

     How about Old Man Muckitymuck  who retired after 20 years with your company? Did you know he’s now on the board of directors of one of your biggest customers?

     And so it goes.  If you didn’t fire ’em, and they were people who left on good terms and simply moved on or retired, they represent a potential gold mine of accelerated sales, new revenue streams, and quality employee referrals, among other possibilities.

     Even someone who’s retired and living in some active adult community,  playing bocce by day, and poker by night, has formed new friend networks that can easily include the father of a major customer or the brother of a key prospect you’re trying to sell… maybe enough to tip the scale in your favor. Y’never know!

     But you never really WILL know  until you start digging and updating and taking inventory of who is where now, and how each may have an opportunity to help your current business needs. 

     Remember that these are all people  who have a working knowledge of your business and industry. They already understand your unique selling proposition, and — hopefully — have a positive attitude toward you and your business and the work experience they had with you. 

     That fact alone makes this group the ideal salesforce. Make them a captive audience and you never know where it can lead you. It is proven. It is being done by major business leaders in companies like DOW, and Microsoft, and Coca-Cola, and Deloitte. It is just as easily done by you. And it’s FREE!

     What’s required is simple. You get these folks together a couple of times a year — perhaps in a special “off-campus” social setting where you treat them to drinks and dinner, and perhaps some overnight accommodations and special events, including an update of what’s new since they were involved… and where you see things headed… and ask for their help.

     Add to that,  an email newsletter and a password-protected page or two on your website that allows for chatroom experiences and a bulletin board for classified ad postings.  

If you’re interested in a FREE “Benefits to Your Business” summary and FREE 10-Step Plan for initiating an Alumni Relations Program in your company, just shoot an email to me Hal@Businessworks.US with “10 STEPS” in the subject line and remember to include your name, business name and a phone number where I can call you with one free (no-strings attached) update to the attachments. Email and phone number privacy are guaranteed! 

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Input always welcome Hal@TheWriterWorks.com “Blog” in subject line or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Hal

Perceptions Sell and

Perceptions UNsell!

What you perceive is what you believe… and what you believe is FACT, even when it’s not!

     It makes a big difference  how you, for example, define a traffic jam depending on your frame of reference. If you’re from LA, the Bronx, the DC Beltway, or Gumboro in Southern Delaware, the New Jersey Pine Barrens, or Rangeley in NW Maine, what you perceive can vary from endless seas of hornblowing standstill cars, to a pickup truck and two motorcycles waiting for a freight train.

     Perception is selective  and varies every minute of every day. You walk into a party and immediately scope the gathering to find a hot-looking member of the opposite sex who’s serving up inviting looking eyes because you are single and on the hunt. The next party-goer enters and immediately seeks the bar, looking to unwind with a free drink. The artist who comes in the door looks past all the people, and the bar, to find the wall where her painting is hung. And so it goes.

     Selective perception  is also what customers exercise when they are sizing up a product, service, showroom, salesperson, commercial, ad, brochure, warranty, or website. You are using selective perception right this minute by having read this far into this blog post. 

     So a good part of the challenge  for your marketing is to capture prospects’ perceptions and imaginations by properly setting the stage. This — as with any stage — is accomplished with colors, props, backdrops, lighting, spatial arrangements, sounds, and often smells and touch… activating the five senses.

     And isn’t channeling selective perception  what the bombardment of opinion forms, attitude surveys, customer questionnaires, R&D studies, media ratings, and focus groups are all about? In order to make a sale, we need to understand what makes our customers tick.

     This is accomplished  most thoroughly and most rapidly by first finding out and figuring out what makes each of us, as business owners and managers, and entrepreneurs, tick! Once you have a better idea of what turns on your attention, your desires, your interests, and prompts you to action, you’ll have a better idea of how to ignite your customers.

Why does that matter?

Because perceptions sell, and perceptions UNsell! 

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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!

Sometimes

Smaller Is Better!

Stop trying to jam  big-budget marketing into today’s low-budget economy! You’ll lose time, money, energy, and respect! (Maybe even your business!)

Having helped to start  hundreds of successful businesses, I’m rarely wrong when it comes to predicting business failure. And I’ll tell you right now that I can name a doctor, a manufacturer, a furniture retailer, a trucking business, a bank, a college, and two car dealerships that are positively headed South. The worst part is they don’t even know it. (Or perhaps they do and just don’t want to admit it!)

They’re all caught up  in trying to beat the economy by overwhelming it, like the poor schlemiel with a gambling addiction, throwing good money after bad. Each of these incipient failures have undertaken paths of reckless endangerment, thinking they are some kinds of hot-shot entrepreneurs. Sadly, they are not likely to survive long enough to see the economy turn.

     SOMETIMES  

(contrary to all the “enlargement” spam emails),

 SMALLER

(as the little Beetle automaker has proven time and again)

  IS BETTER!

     Marketing  doesn’t have to be exorbitantly expensive and splashy to be effective. There are some enormously successful direct mail campaigns out there that use postcards. Some of the world’s greatest print space advertisers have discovered they can be equally effective with great (tiny and infinitely less expensive) front page classified ads.

     Baseball managers  who lack big-time sluggers resort to winning games by playing “small ball” …focusing on the basics like not swinging at first pitches, drawing walks, bunting, base-stealing, catching with two hands (!) and playing “heads up” on each pitch. It works.

     Professionally-written  email campaigns can be hugely successful for no cost beyond a writer and a technician (and maybe a list rental). I am presently preparing a frugal campaign for one client that calls for strategically-placed highly-specialized business cards instead of the elaborate and expensive brochures he originally planned.

For another client,  I am preparing an inexpensive customer attitude survey that will get the business significant sales simply by virtue of asking for opinions (and might even collect some valuable ideas and feedback as well!) Bumper stickers are making a comeback.

Bartering  website banners and, of course, the much-talked-about use of social media also represent free and often very effective marketing tools. And, done right, not enough can be said about the value of professionally-done (and again, free) public relations news release and BUZZ (word-of-mouth) programs.

Before you dig  into your pocket to bet on yet another roll of the dice, stop and think about other effective, less-expensive ways to get your message across. The ways are there waiting for you. When smaller is better, open minds open doors!

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FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

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!