This will be my lasting posting on this site. Over the last few months I’ve dropped off in my postings. This doesn’t mean I’m done blogging. Far from it. In fact, I’m blogging over at EADDblog, PAWatercooler, and several other blogs. You’ve got the links on the right side, so if you care to keep reading my thoughts, you’ll know where to find me.
First, “keep you friends close, and your enemies closer,” is one of the lessons that Michael Corleone learned from his father. In the business world, you could alter that to keep you friends close and your competitors closer. It’s always good to know what the competition is doing. It’s good to know what their strengths and weaknesses are compared to yours. It’s also good to know the differences between your business and theirs because ultimately, you should be a resource for your prospects - meaning that you might just refer business to a competitor sometime because they can do a better job for a contact than you can. Your contact will thank you.
Second, “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” is probably the most famous line from the movie. From the standpoint of your business, what could you offer that a prospect couldn’t refuse? What kind of value could you possibly provide that would make it crazy for a prospect to pass on?
Lastly, the end of the movie shows an old Michael Corleone sitting in a chair, alone, then slumping over and dying. In the end, it’s not all the money that you generated, or the toys you had, or anything material that matters, you still die. What kind of legacy do you want to leave? How about your business - what do you want people to say about your business when you finally close shop, sell, or pass the business on?
Being someone who has an extensive background in politics, I would be remiss if I didn’t write an article on the lessons learned from this past Tuesday’s election.
Here’s a few lessons/reminders that apply to politics, and certainly apply to business.
First, for professionals, election night signifies the beginning of the next election cycle. There is little time to rest because there is another election right around the corner. Isn’t that the same in your business? When you make a sale, you don’t sit around and celebrate and stop working. A sale signifies that it’s time to move on to fulfillment with your new client and time to get back out and start selling again (and actually you should be prospecting continuously). The point is, celebrate your sale, but get back to work.
Second, emotion. It’s always interesting to watch the emotional roller coaster that staff, volunteers and supporters go through leading up to and through the actual election. The more emotionally attached to a candidate someone is, the more they will do for that candidate. People don’t buy because something makes sense, they buy because of emotion - in the case of this election, something historic, feeling comfortable with a candidate, fear of losing something, etc. It’s no different for any other business. People buy based on emotion. How can you tap into that?
Third, expectations. Politics is a huge expectations game. It is dangerous for a candidate to raise their own expectations too high because the likelihood is that they will fail. Our governmental system is designed to resist change, promote gridlock, and be inefficient. When it comes to government, that’s a good thing - as I always say, the most efficient form of government is a dictatorship - and who wants that? Is this any different for your business? What are you expectations? Are they realistic? What expectations are you promoting to your clients and prospects? Are you raising expectations too high or lowering expectations too low?
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It’s now November. There are two months left in 2008. I’m going to take this opportunity to ask you a series of questions. The point is to make the most of the rest of 2008.
Are you one track to meet your strategic goals for 2008?
When’s the last time you looked at your strategic plan?
If you could only accomplish one more goal in 2008, what would it be? What’s holding you back from completing it? How will you overcome those obstacles?
What’s your sales goal for these last two month?
What training/development do your people or you need?
- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at Passportforsuccess.org.
This past week I got to read a story to my oldest daughter’s kindergarten class as part of the class’ secret reader program. I went all out for this - dressing up as a pirate. I read “Roger, the Jolly Pirate” to the class. I even brought a treasure chest and handed out chocolate gold coins for the kids. The kids genuinely loved it and I had a great time as well.
I’m sharing this because I think there are some great customer service lessons that I learned from this experience.
First, the kids fed off my enthusiasm. Don’t your customers feed off your enthusiasm as well? When you are passionate about what you do, people can see it. Zig Ziglar defined a sale as the transference of energy. Who would you rather buy from, or even pay attention to for that matter - someone with passion or a dull person?
Second, you have to earn the right to be heard. While the First Amendment of the Constitution gives everyone the right to free speech, it doesn’t guarantee that anyone has to listen. That’s true in politics, sales, customer service and reading to kindergartners. I earned the class’ attention because I understood what they would value - creativity, interaction, and dressing up.
Third, don’t overstay your welcome. Know when to leave on a high note. I was in the class for approximately 30 minutes, maybe less. If I had stayed much longer, I would have started to blend in with everything else that was going on, the kids would have lost interest, and I would have lost my effectiveness. How often do we overstay our welcome with our customers? Do what you have to do with your customers, understand their attention span, and then let them be until next time. Trying to provide more value beyond this may actually do more harm than good.
- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at Passportforsuccess.org.
Over the last couple of weekends I’ve had the opportunity to do some traveling. As you know, two weekends ago I was in Hartford, CT. This past weekend, the family came with me out to Grove City, PA for my wife and my ten year college reunion. Here’s what I’ve learned from my recent travels:
Always provide yourself a cushion. Whether I was traveling by myself or with my family, when we give ourselves an extra cushion of time to arrive, we can stay more relaxed. When you are planning out your business goals, are you cutting it close, or are you giving yourself enough time to actually complete the goal?
Traveling is a process, not just a result. Yeah, you are looking to arrive at a certain location at a specific time, but when you let go of the result, you can actually enjoy the ride. In my case, I enjoyed the turning leaves of New England and Central PA. We got where we were going with enough time. When you are working on your goal, are you so focused on the result that you miss other opportunities?
Lastly, take a break. I took time off and did no work while we traveled this past weekend. I didn’t even check my e-mail. It was a great sense of relief. When you are working on your goals, how often do you give yourself a break? Breaks are important - they give our minds an opportunity to stop focusing on your goal. When we get back to our goal work, we are more refreshed and ready to go - usually making us more effective.
- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at Passportforsuccess.org.
The marathon is over. As usual, I learned a few lessons from the race that I’d like to share with you.
First lesson - keep going. I ran 21 miles before taking a walk break. This felt great. It kept me on target to do a personal best.
Second lesson - relax. Several times during the race, I reminded myself to relax my body. This allowed me ease up my body and run easier.
Third lesson - Make your goals big. I set a goal of finishing the marathon in three hours and fifty-nine minutes. I didn’t make it in that time, but I still was pleased, because it wasn’t ever about reaching that goal. It was about pushing myself farther than I had been before. As a result, I did finish with a personal best - topping my old personal best by 20 minutes.
What are the lessons you are learning in your business and your life? Care to share them with anyone? You never know what you or others could learn.
- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at Passportforsuccess.org.
Who do you bounce your ideas off of? Who can give you honest feedback? Who pokes holes in your ideas?
These are the things that masterminds can offer. If you are interested in masterminding but are not sure how to get started, please give me a call at 717-557-5001 or drop me an e-mail and I’ll share what I know or invite you to one of the mastermind groups I’m involved with.
- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at Passportforsuccess.org.
This was a good week when it comes to goals. I was pleased to accomplish several of my strategic goals this week. Of course, it’s a great feeling to accomplish goals - however, I’d say it’s more important to understand what allowed me to accomplish so much.
So what happened that allowed me to get so much done? First, I was focused. I knew exactly what I needed to accomplish. I allowed myself to be specific. When I’m specific, I know what the end result looks like.
Second - I faced and overcame obstacles. A big change that happened over the last few weeks was a change in thinking about the obstacle I faced. I was able to overcome my own challenge because my belief about the old way of doing things was no longer acceptable. When this thought changed, so did my behavior. I did the thing I had been dreading previously and I did it without effort.
So what do you need to do to get stuff done this week? What’s the biggest goal that have for the week? What obstacles are you facing? Let me know if you need some help.
- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at Passportforsuccess.org.
Richard Viguerie has a petition to stop the federal bailout.
Feel free to sign it here:
http://conservativehq.com/active-petitions/petition-to-stop-the-bailout/