How Are You Adjusting?

The world is changing. Business has changed. Our clients have changed. How are you changing?

Here are five things to consider in our changing market environment:

• How can you strengthen your business model to thrive in the future? Evaluate how your product or service is being used and who is using it. What changes are occuring in technology or in knowledge that will impact future use? Are there new technologies that can improve your value and service to your clients? Focus on being a future leader or someone else will be.


• How are you training your sales team to be successful? Customers are still buying today. They are buying from businesses that are adding value and are asking for the order. Connect with your prospective customers by asking engaging questions. Document those engaging questions and teach your sales team to be consistent. In sales, you need to connect emotionally on what your prospect is looking for. Solve their problem vs. selling them.


• Is your attitude helping you and your team or hindering your success? Your team is a direct reflection of you. A leader of a business needs to be encouraging, inspiring, and helping their team see opportunities and how to take advantage of them. Use positive words, share what you want vs. what you do not want, and always ask 'how can we make this happen?' vs. 'this won't work.'


• How are you measuring success and progress in your business? In order to improve we need to know our current state and what specifically needs to be improved. How many leads are we attracting each week? Where are they coming from? How many people are in our sales cycle and at what decision making stage? How many people say yes vs. say no? What can we do to increase these numbers? What you focus on is what you get. Be very clear on what you need to do to improve your results. The only way to improve results is by changing actions.


• How are you interacting with your clients, prospects, and past clients? If you are not communicating with your clients, someone else is. At a minimum, contact your database every 90 days. Use your website, create an email newsletter, make phone calls - do what adds value to your clients and is most effective for you.

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Take action today and make steps to improving your results. Adjust your business to the market place. If you don't, your competition will.

Your Action Coach Monte

What is Your Focus?

I am sharing an article by Jeffrey Gitomer. Excellent piece on how we think and approach situations. Jeffrey will be in Des Moines on Friday, April 17. Visit here for more information.

"See" and "Think" before "Do" = bigger success than you have now.

In order to succeed and grow in your sales career, you have to get past the mentality of "make more sales," "hit my quota," "end of the month," "end of the quarter" or "make my plan." It's not that you don't have to "hit your numbers," it's that you have to THINK beyond them and SEE beyond them to get to the success level in sales that you seek.

Thought and vision are two critical elements in growth, whether it's company growth, career growth, or personal growth.

How do you see things?
Do you see the big picture or a commission?
Do you see the big picture or a sale?
Do you see the big picture or a quota?
Do you see the big picture or a cold call?
Do you see the big picture or your job?
Do you see the big picture or the big problems?
Do you see the big picture or the big complaints?
Do you see the big picture or the present economy?
Do you see the big picture or the price of gasoline?

How do you think about things?
Do you wake up in the morning and think about what the weather is, or do you think about your frame of mind and how to ensure a positive day?
Do you turn on the TV without thinking, or do you read a few pages of a book to generate thought?
Do you think about traffic on the way to work, or your first sales call of the day and how successful it will be?
Do you think about prospecting and leads, or building relationships to earn referrals?

If you "see" your career with the right vision, and you "think about" your actions with the right vision, then your direction will be towards success rather than just "numbers." And your direction will be towards "best" not just "sales."

Numbers are important, but the right vision will get you to them faster than another cold call.

The following list is an eye opener and a brain opener. I am asking you to read, understand, apply, and become proficient in each of these elements and characteristics of BIG PICTURE.

The big picture is delivering value.
The big picture is having a great attitude every day.
The big picture is believing in what you do.
The big picture is being of service without measuring.
The big picture is earning a referral.The big picture is building a relationship.
The big picture is thinking long term.The big picture is making all decisions based on the person you seek to become.
The big picture is having a great reputation.
The big picture is community volunteering and helping.
The big picture is creating family and community value.
The big picture is achievement.
The big picture is improvement.
The big picture is striving to be your best.
The big picture is dedicating yourself to remaining a life-long student in sales, service, and attitude.
The big picture is devoting yourself to your success and your fulfillment.
The big picture is loving what you do.

How much time do you devote to thinking about the big picture? Can you visualize the big picture? Can you see the big picture? Is it a clear picture? Are you taking action towards the big picture? Are you becoming proficient in the elements of the big picture? Or are you "too busy" to see BIG, because you're all wrapped up in SMALL?

SMALL is striving for a new car, or some other material goal. SMALL is spending your time planning a one-week vacation or worrying about just "making your numbers."

I saw a quote the other day that gave me an insightful AHA! Perhaps it will do the same for you. "People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference." Luciano Pavarotti, opera singer 1935-2007.

It's interesting to me that people in the arts have a huge dedication and devotion to their craft. They love what they do, and they're emotionally driven to perform their personal best every day. And the ones who rise to the top earn a fortune.

They have vision of performance way before they perform, they think about their performance way before they execute, and they practice to perfect their skills with a devotion to excel.

Here are a few thoughts that will help your vision and your thinking:

* If you dedicate more time for yourself and your studies, the money will follow.
* If you love what you do, the money will follow.
* If you help enough people, the money will follow.
* If you are the best at what you do, the money will follow.

Dedicate time to your self-improvement in areas beyond selling. Devote yourself to providing value and being your best for your customers. Take career achievement actions, don't just make more sales calls.

What do you see?
What do you think?

Want a few more ideas to help you see more and think better? Go to www.gitomer.com, register if you're a first time visitor, and enter the word THINK in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling and eight other business books on sales, customer loyalty, and personal development. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on sales, customer loyalty, and personal development at www.trainone.com. Jeffrey conducts more than 100 personalized, customized seminars and keynotes a year. To find out more, visit www.gitomer.com. Jeffrey can be reached at 704.333.1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com

Have an incredible week!

Your Action Coach Monte

Hidden Cash in Your Business

In today's economy cash is king. So we need to make sure we are maximizing our cash and our opportunities every day.

The purpose of business is to make profit. If that is the purpose let's focus on it.

Did you know there is hidden cash in your business?

Here are a few areas for us to look:

* In our customer/client interactions -- When we interact with our clients we must create an emotion to the need for our product or service. 80% of decisions are made by emotion. We cannot wait for an order, we must create the need for an order then ask for it. This adds value to our clients. As follow up, make sure that during every interaction with our clients or prospects we are showing value, showing a sense of urgency, then asking for the order.

* In our transactions -- Every time we make a sale remember the words up-sell and cross-sell. No matter what they are buying we can find another item to add to their 'need' list or solve their problem. Ask more questions to learn about their needs or desires then add another item or service if possible. Another area to improve during our transactions is in our pricing. When was the last time you raised your prices? Or when have you compared your prices to your competition to see if you are competitive or below market pricing? As follow up, review your current pricing. Make appropriate adjustments after reviewing your cost structure and evaluating market pricing. Also at each transaction do your best to understand your customers needs and up-sell or cross-sell additional products or services.

* In our positioning & marketing -- We all have more competition than we have ever had before. With this in mind we need to clearly define our uniqueness and be able to have our entire team share that message consistently. Take the time to identify why you are different and why your prospects should conduct business with you. Secondly, in every marketing action or activity we should have a call to action. Tell your prospective customer what they need to do next to use your products. As follow up, clearly define your difference in the market then train your team to express it consistently, secondly add a call to action to every marketing activity.

* In operating our business --In finding cash in your operations it is a function of efficiencies and productivity. Are your actions and time getting you closer to your goals or are you just full of activity? Evaluate this throughout your entire company in every position. Ask yourself daily - 'will this action get me closer to my goal?'

Make a plan of each of these actions, create focus around them, teach your team to implement, and follow through.

Let me know how you do!

Monte Wyatt
Your Action Coach

2009 Focus

Are you holding off all of the distractions? There are more positives going on in the market place than the media is willing to talk about. Who are you believing?

We control and create our own reality. It is up to us.

To help you accomplish this I have 3 suggestions:

• Be Prepared
• Be Proactive
• Persevere

Be Prepared

In order to be prepared we must be willing to make decisions and move forward. Stop putting off critical decision making. Once you make a decision you make a commitment to achieve or fulfill that activity.

To be prepared in our businesses we must first decide what it is we desire to accomplish. Anticipate and plan for what you expect. Create specific and measureable goals for 2009. Set your revenue targets and your expense budgets. Once they are set, we must measure frequently, review our progress and adjust our plan as necessary. Adjust by changing the actions that create the results. The only way to get different results is to change our actions.

Create a marketing plan that supports your revenue targets. It is more critical now than ever to be marketing your business. Repeat what has worked in the past and do more of it. A marketing plan should consist of who your target audience is, why they need or want your product, clearly define why they should buy from you. And the answer isn't price. Once you have accomplished these critical marketing components now you can discuss how to get your message out.

Be Proactive

Take Action! The only way to be proactive is if we take action and control what we can control. Stay focused on the actions that create the results that you desire. Do the same with your team. Lead them, provide direction, feedback, guidance, and assistance to accomplish their goals. Once we are focused we must create accountability. Accountability is about follow through and managing the business or individual. Set benchmarks and make sure you adn your team make progress daily, weekly, and monthly.

What are your KPI's? KPI can stand for Key Performance Indicators or Key Predictor Indicators. How do we know what to improve if we don't know our current state. Identify the 2-3 specific items to measure progress in the business. Whether it is appointments and the number of appointments that turn into sales or number of phone calls it takes to get appointments, we need to watch and manage the actions of our business.

Persevere

I want to encourage everyone to refuse to participate in the recession. Focus on the right actions and the positives that are occuring. If we address the market with the right attitude and be creative in working with our clients we will gain energy and momentum.

Focus on your goals and the actions that create those goals. Every morning review your plan for the day to ensure that you are taking action to get closer to your desired outcome.

Another great strategy to persevere is to maximize your relationship with your business coach. Follow through on the proven strategies and tactics, review your marketing pieces and messages, confirm your team is following your guidance and your expectations.

Make 2009 one of your best years!

Monte, Your Action Coach, 515-222-9193, montewyatt@actioncoach.com

How to Find Opportunity in Crisis

The market is shifting…are we shifting with it? In today’s market place there are many worries and concerns about the future. Here are 11 actions to focus on how to THRIVE and not just survive.

Build off of positives. Now is the time to be more disciplined mentally than ever before. If we listen to the noise we can get depressed really easily. Look for the positives that happen every day and build off of them. Where are our new clients coming from, how can we build off of that and gain more? Current clients are interested in multiple products and services, how can we build off of that? Keep your mind positive and help your team’s mind stay positive. Look for the positives daily.

Revisit our goals. As the market is shifting revisit the details of our goals. I am not suggesting to reduce your goals. I am suggesting to evaluate the mix of products to get there. Now is the time to make sure our goals are very specific and we are clear with exactly what we are working towards. The goals should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and have a timeframe.

Revisit our plan. Ensure that our actions and strategies are written down. Be clear on timeframes, benchmarks, and actions that need to occur to achieve our goals. Identify who is accountable for each action and create accountability. Lack of accountability has gotten us into this situation. Those who prepare better will succeed.

Identify our knowledge gap and fill it. To make educated decisions we must continue to be educated. Keep up to date on industry issues, financing options, leadership and marketing. Spend time everyday gaining one tidbit of knowledge to help your business grow and improve.
Cut the fat from our business. Based on the revisited goals and plans, what is necessary and what is not? Cut the easy things that are not helping to grow the business. Make these decisions logically not emotionally.

Examine our products and services. Are there items that need to be added or dropped? Which products need to be repriced? Which products or services need to be repositioned in the market? What are our client’s needs and are we meeting them? This conversation will help us become more focused and manage our portfolio better.

Re-examine our sales and marketing strategies. We must have a clear point of difference or uniqueness in the market place. Answer the question “Why us vs. buying elsewhere?” The answer must be very compelling. Be clear on our target market. Make sure we are talking to and marketing to the audience that needs our product or service. Our message must clearly show how we can fulfill the needs of our clients.

Implement cash flow strategies. There are two big areas: credit policies and collection processes. Make adjustments to the credit that we offer our customers and ask our suppliers for better terms. By making progress on both sides, our cash flow management is greatly improved. If our receivables are out of line it is time to change our terms and begin to follow a collection process with timely phone calls and asking to pick up the check.

Know our numbers cold. Test and measure everything we can to help make educated decisions. Measure our return on marketing investment. If it isn’t giving a good return either stop or improve the message. Measure our conversion rate. This is how many leads that actually become clients. If we are getting the leads, let’s make sure they are buying. Measure the actions that create the results and then improve the actions to improve the results.

Keep existing customers and get past customers back. Who is easier to sell to current and past clients or new prospects? Current and past clients. They have already bought from us and they trust us. Service them and treat them well. Communicate with them frequently, inform them of our new products and services, and thank them for their business.

Go make SALES!! Plain and simple. Go out and help our clients and prospects. When you help your clients and prospects meet their needs we will gain sales. Now is not the time to sit around and wonder what to do. Keep making sales!

These 11 actions will refocus your mind and your business. In this economic market place, you will see if your business has been successful because of how good you are or because the market has been good.

Do you want to recession proof your business? Choose to navigate the recession and contact me for a complimentary coaching session to discuss six ways your business can prosper during lean times.

Monte Wyatt Your Action Coach 515-222-9193 montewyatt@actioncoach.com

Being Curious To Learn

Curiosity killed the cat, they say…but only after it had used up its nine lives. Being inquisitive and interested in people, things, and events is an admirable characteristic, both because it increases your own learning and also because it’s infectious. If you display curiosity, those around you will be more curious than they would otherwise have been.

An open, enquiring mind is a pre-requisite for continuous learning and development. The alternative, a closed mind, is a recipe for stagnation and for the rate of change to exceed the rate of learning.

If you’re not already the sort of person who displays curiosity, it’s possible for you to learn to become so. How easy or difficult this will be depends on your starting point. If you feel curious, interested, and inquisitive…but don’t exhibit those behaviors, it’s comparatively easy to adopt behaviors that will demonstrate your curiosity. You could, for example, embrace a commitment to talk to people about what interests them, ask lots of questions, and demonstrate how interested you are in them. By feeling interested you’re already halfway there and these behaviors should be quite easy to adopt.

If you don’t feel interested, it’s quite possible to act as if you are interested. Most people will discover that if they pretend to be interested then they start to feel interested (fake it till you make it). Your outward, exhibited behavior will affect your inner feelings…rather than the other way round.

Curiosity provides the springboard for learning and development. Curious, inquisitive people tend to:

*ask lots of questions

*think out loud

*play devil’s advocate

*dig and delve to find out more

*formulate and reformulate “theories”

*have lots of ideas

*challenge conventional thinking

This is an admirable list. The downside is that people who are too curious will often flit, butterfly-like, from one interest to another and not sustain their enthusiasm for any one thing. As a result they fail to see things through to a conclusion. They are good starters, but poor finishers. If this describes you, even just sometimes, you can correct this tendency by working to maintain your interest, continually checking to ensure that your people are completing the things they’ve started.

Consistent curiosity is vital…the lifeblood of continuous improvement. All learning and development comes from an insatiable desire for curiosity.

Are you curious to improve?

What do you believe are the keys to coaching success?

When I ask this question, I am referring to both a coaching business and coaching clients, because I believe the keys are the same for both cases. For now let’s focus on our coaching business.

To have a successful coaching practice, individual or firm, I believe there are five categories that all the details can fall under. The category I am going to focus on here is creating and fulfilling your “personal brand.”

My definition of a personal brand is the following: what a person is known for, what values they possess and express, how they are remembered, and finally the thoughts that come to mind when their name is mentioned.

So what is your personal brand as a coach? How do you want your community to think about you? What do you want your clients to say about you? How are you acting and behaving to support your desired personal brand?

We must start with the end in mind. Clearly define what it is you want to be known for. For example, one of the areas I want to be known for is being an excellent speaker, teacher, and presenter.

To fulfill this personal brand I must create speaking or presenting opportunities. These can be either free or paid engagements. Get in front of the right audiences that can lead to many new opportunities. In October I conducted a day long workshop (per person registration fee) for a national crop insurance company and 45 of their Midwest agents. Each of these agents owns their own business. The planning of this day started about 6 months before the workshop date. The crop insurance company did all the marketing, all the registration, and covered all of the day’s expenses. Because of this workshop I have gained two new coaching clients and a number of opportunities still in front of me. This is one example of many activities I have done to live my personal brand.

The next action I must do to fulfill my personal brand is to understand the knowledge I am teaching to create the wisdom within my audience or clients. To create wisdom in others I have to have wisdom within myself. This to me is about congruency. How can I teach something that I do not do in my business? What impression does that give? How much credibility do I have? To take knowledge into wisdom we must understand it intimately, we must practice it, we much teach it, and we must use it ourselves.

The final action I must do to fulfill my personal brand of being an excellent speaker, teacher, and presenter is that I must practice over and over and over again until the material becomes natural and my mind is on auto pilot because I know it so well. Make the time to create the words you want to say, make a system of how you say it, and then take the time to practice and practice some more.

Creating and fulfilling your personal brand. This is a main ingredient to having a successful coaching practice, but remember, I believe there are four more ingredients.

If you would like to learn about the other four and be invited to an informational webinar, send me an email to montewyatt@actioncoach.com. There are many opportunities to gain assistance in creating a successful coaching practice. Find one that works for you and follow it.

Let’s make 2008 an incredible year!

Monte Wyatt
Your Action Coach