There are basically two realities in life. The first is your everyday life and all the events that affect it. The second would be your personal vision for what you really want your life to be. If both of these realities are the same, you can stop reading and go on with your life. Unfortunately, if you are like most people, there is a gap between these two concepts and you are caught somewhere in the middle.
I was taught that the human mind can only accept one perception of reality. You can not live in both realities, so your mind has to choose one. Most people choose to focus all their attention on their current situation as this makes the most sense, or does it? The day to day reality of your life is a hard place to live. There are constant problems and numerous setbacks. Things rarely go according to plan and time is a commodity in high demand. If this is the case, why choose to live in this reality? Because that is the only one you are allowing your mind to accept.
What about the other reality, your vision for what you want your life to be. You probably think of this as a dream, a far off goal you hope to obtain someday. My question is why can't this be your reality? I'm not suggesting you live in a dream world that tries to escape reality, rather keep your vision top of mind every single day of your life. Focus on treating setbacks and disappointments as stepping stones to creating a better life. Take a positive approach to challenges and turn them into opportunities. Most importantly, do not waste your time on negative energy, as this just drains you to the point of exhaustion.
Frankly, it is very easy to live in your current reality and that is why your mind wants to choose this route. It takes hard work to train your mind to live in the reality of your vision, but work that will pay untold dividends toward the quality of your life. Remember, your mind can only accept one; it is up to you to decide which one.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
A Mid Year Review
As you approach the end of the first six months of the year, it is a good time to conduct a general review of your business. While actual numbers for sales, expenses, and profits for the first six months will not be available until July, now is a good time to access your results in terms of the critical issues you identified in your business plan. This analysis is vital to ensure you are on track with your goals and objectives
Some of the most important areas you should cover are customer relations, business development, internal and external processes, and employee performance. There may be other aspects of the business you may want to include, but these four areas will provide a good picture of how well you are doing.
Your business begins and ends with customers. If they are happy, you are happy. In a tough economy they will not think twice about going to your competition if they are not satisfied with your performance. Your review should consist of gathering some direct feedback from your customers to help ensure that you are indeed meeting, if not exceeding their expectations. It is far better to address any concerns now than wait and hope things get better.
When reviewing business development you can break this down into two simple areas; gaining business from new customers and gaining additional business from existing customers. You should strive for an equal balance between the two, as this will provide the steadiest and most solid growth over the long term.
Cost control is vital to protecting the expense side of your business. Reviewing all the processes that are involved in your day- to- day operations may uncover some wasteful practices or money saving ideas that can be applied to other aspects of your company. You must constantly work to eliminate bad practices and expand best practices to best utilize the limited resources that you have.
Finally, you need to review employee performance as this directly impacts all the areas mentioned above. You can have the greatest plan in the world, but if it is not being executed properly, all your effort will have been wasted.
You should think of this whole concept as a coach’s halftime speech to his team. Now is the time to praise and criticize, make adjustments and eliminate mistakes, capitalize on opportunities and form a better plan for the second half. If you are ahead in the game, this is not the time to ease up on your efforts and if you are behind you need to find a way to turn things around. A thorough review of the past will provide invaluable insight for the future.
Some of the most important areas you should cover are customer relations, business development, internal and external processes, and employee performance. There may be other aspects of the business you may want to include, but these four areas will provide a good picture of how well you are doing.
Your business begins and ends with customers. If they are happy, you are happy. In a tough economy they will not think twice about going to your competition if they are not satisfied with your performance. Your review should consist of gathering some direct feedback from your customers to help ensure that you are indeed meeting, if not exceeding their expectations. It is far better to address any concerns now than wait and hope things get better.
When reviewing business development you can break this down into two simple areas; gaining business from new customers and gaining additional business from existing customers. You should strive for an equal balance between the two, as this will provide the steadiest and most solid growth over the long term.
Cost control is vital to protecting the expense side of your business. Reviewing all the processes that are involved in your day- to- day operations may uncover some wasteful practices or money saving ideas that can be applied to other aspects of your company. You must constantly work to eliminate bad practices and expand best practices to best utilize the limited resources that you have.
Finally, you need to review employee performance as this directly impacts all the areas mentioned above. You can have the greatest plan in the world, but if it is not being executed properly, all your effort will have been wasted.
You should think of this whole concept as a coach’s halftime speech to his team. Now is the time to praise and criticize, make adjustments and eliminate mistakes, capitalize on opportunities and form a better plan for the second half. If you are ahead in the game, this is not the time to ease up on your efforts and if you are behind you need to find a way to turn things around. A thorough review of the past will provide invaluable insight for the future.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sales 101: Do you know your customer?
There are several steps involved in creating an effective sales process. They are separate pieces that build upon one another. One of these steps is finding who you want to sell to. As a sales person you have to fully understand your product or service’s features and benefits. This will allow you to match them with a current need in the marketplace. Anyone who can benefit by having this need fulfilled becomes a potential customer. If you are selling to a specific industry, your prospect list may be small and highly defined. If your product has wider appeal, your prospect list can be extremely large and thus harder to manage. This is why taking the time initially to identify the best prospects for what you have to sell will pay dividends in the long run.
Your “time to sell”, the actual time in front of a potential customer is the most important part of your job. Developing a properly targeted call list will provide the best use of this time. Before you ever step foot into the door, you will have the confidence that you truly are able to fulfill a need. Once you are in front of a properly targeted prospect, you greatly increase your probability of closing the sale.
Having a targeted call list will also increase your ability to gain quality referrals. If you can relay to other business associates exactly who you are looking to meet, right down to the company name and key contact person, you are much more likely to get a positive response. This is especially important when your other efforts to engage this prospect have not been successful.
Knowing who you want to call on and why will keep you organized as you schedule your time. This allows you to properly plan your selling strategy so your energy is spent on being productive rather than being busy. You can make all the sales calls in the world, but at the end of the day you will still be measured on actual sales.
There are many tools available when trying to define your target accounts. Proper research can identify prospects by such variables as specific industry, number of employees, annual revenue, locations etc… You need to determine what variables define your ideal customer. Sorting your prospects accordingly enables you to create your target list.
Properly developing a target call list can be somewhat time consuming at first. However, once it is in place it will keep you on track in your selling efforts. It can continually evolve as you add new prospects and remove ones that no longer fit. It provides you the best chance to stay focused and remain one step ahead of your competition.
Your “time to sell”, the actual time in front of a potential customer is the most important part of your job. Developing a properly targeted call list will provide the best use of this time. Before you ever step foot into the door, you will have the confidence that you truly are able to fulfill a need. Once you are in front of a properly targeted prospect, you greatly increase your probability of closing the sale.
Having a targeted call list will also increase your ability to gain quality referrals. If you can relay to other business associates exactly who you are looking to meet, right down to the company name and key contact person, you are much more likely to get a positive response. This is especially important when your other efforts to engage this prospect have not been successful.
Knowing who you want to call on and why will keep you organized as you schedule your time. This allows you to properly plan your selling strategy so your energy is spent on being productive rather than being busy. You can make all the sales calls in the world, but at the end of the day you will still be measured on actual sales.
There are many tools available when trying to define your target accounts. Proper research can identify prospects by such variables as specific industry, number of employees, annual revenue, locations etc… You need to determine what variables define your ideal customer. Sorting your prospects accordingly enables you to create your target list.
Properly developing a target call list can be somewhat time consuming at first. However, once it is in place it will keep you on track in your selling efforts. It can continually evolve as you add new prospects and remove ones that no longer fit. It provides you the best chance to stay focused and remain one step ahead of your competition.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Making your Website an Effective Marketing Tool
The Internet is rapidly becoming the primary source for the way most people obtain information. Studies have shown that the volume of content on the World Wide Web has tripled since 2003. Future generations will look back on newspapers, magazines, phone books and numerous other printed materials as the dinosaurs of the information industry. The central piece of any company's online presence is their website. This marketing tool has become one of the most effective ways for a company to promote their business. It allows them to reach out to new markets and attract new customers in ways traditional advertising can no longer supply. Like any tool, when used properly it will yield excellent results, but when used improperly it is likely to do more harm than good. The following are some basic concepts that must be taken into consideration in order to gain the maximum benefit from your website.
The first question you need to ask is, how do you envision using your site to grow your business? It needs to be more than just an online brochure that provides a pretty snapshot of your business. It not only has to be designed to attract visitors, it has to engage them as well. You need to give people a reason to stay on your site, as the average attention span is rather short. The longer someone stays on your site, the more information they will absorb. Your ultimate goal is to create a "call to action" that brings a visitor one step closer to becoming a customer. With today's technology, there is very little a website cannot do, so take the time to explore all the options that are available to accomplish this.
The next step is to find someone to build your website. Resist the temptation to be a "do it yourselfer" when it comes to website design as trust me, it as not as simple as it appears. Also avoid the urge to go cheap by using a novice designer. What you save upfront will end up costing you much more in the long run. You need to view your website as a major marketing investment in your company. Designate the proper resources to create a first class website that includes professional design and content. With so much information already on the Internet, your site needs to be able to cut through the clutter and grab someone's attention.
Finally you need to determine how you will maintain your website. Most companies fail to take this step and end up letting their site become stagnate. This is like investing in a brand new piece of equipment that you never plug in. Constantly adding, changing, and updating content keeps your website fresh and alive. When done properly, it will naturally keep you high in the search rankings attracting new visitors on a regular basis. This is another area where a trained professional can be extremely beneficial in making sure your website remains up to date and relevant to potential and existing customers. Even if you do decide to maintain the site yourself, make sure you do it on a consistent basis and never let it become dated.
For more information on the entire process please visit VBWebsites at VBWebsites.com This is a professional website design firm I have worked with in the past, that has numerous examples of first class websites that were designed specifically for one purpose, to be a growth engine for the company.
The first question you need to ask is, how do you envision using your site to grow your business? It needs to be more than just an online brochure that provides a pretty snapshot of your business. It not only has to be designed to attract visitors, it has to engage them as well. You need to give people a reason to stay on your site, as the average attention span is rather short. The longer someone stays on your site, the more information they will absorb. Your ultimate goal is to create a "call to action" that brings a visitor one step closer to becoming a customer. With today's technology, there is very little a website cannot do, so take the time to explore all the options that are available to accomplish this.
The next step is to find someone to build your website. Resist the temptation to be a "do it yourselfer" when it comes to website design as trust me, it as not as simple as it appears. Also avoid the urge to go cheap by using a novice designer. What you save upfront will end up costing you much more in the long run. You need to view your website as a major marketing investment in your company. Designate the proper resources to create a first class website that includes professional design and content. With so much information already on the Internet, your site needs to be able to cut through the clutter and grab someone's attention.
Finally you need to determine how you will maintain your website. Most companies fail to take this step and end up letting their site become stagnate. This is like investing in a brand new piece of equipment that you never plug in. Constantly adding, changing, and updating content keeps your website fresh and alive. When done properly, it will naturally keep you high in the search rankings attracting new visitors on a regular basis. This is another area where a trained professional can be extremely beneficial in making sure your website remains up to date and relevant to potential and existing customers. Even if you do decide to maintain the site yourself, make sure you do it on a consistent basis and never let it become dated.
For more information on the entire process please visit VBWebsites at VBWebsites.com This is a professional website design firm I have worked with in the past, that has numerous examples of first class websites that were designed specifically for one purpose, to be a growth engine for the company.
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