Tips and techniques for achieving success in business.

Effective Employee Communications is a Leading Indicator of a Company’s Financial Performance

Companies with highly effective employee communications show an average of 47 percent higher total returns to shareholders than companies with the least effective communications.

It’s easy to see how communicating effectively to employees translates to better earnings. After all, employees are the backbone ― as well as a major expense ― of most companies. Effective communications can help:

• Reduce employee turnover and keep them engaged on the job

• Improve manager-employee trust

• Ensure a smooth transition/change

• Reduce your health care costs

Using Your Brain

Have you ever heard that we only use about 10 percent of our brain? If that is the case what in the world is going on with the other 90 percent? Well, here are some answers to that question. The 10 percent of your brain that this is referring to is actually your conscious brain. This is the part that we use while we’re awake and allows us to think and communicate. About 45 percent of our brain is the un-conscious part. This is used for functions that we don’t think much about like breathing, blinking (or in some cases, when my wife drives her car . . . just kidding hon!).

Half Full of Half Empty?

The downturn in the economy has been dragging on for quite some time now. We keep reading and watching the news reporting that things are starting to turn, all very slowly they add. Many large businesses have announced improved earnings. Although many of them have cut costs instead of increasing sales in order to report improved earnings. Washington keeps saying things are improving. It’s not easy to tell if these statements are strictly political posturing or facts. But most of the people I talk to who are running smaller businesses have not seen an improvement.

Why People Buy

“People buy based on emotion and rationalize their decisions based on facts.” This is a common quote you will hear from most sales trainers, or you will read it in most sales improvement books. It’s true. If you don’t embrace this philosophy in your business and sales process you will not reach your potential in sales and profit.

How to Fail at Business

Most of the “how to” articles you read, including the ones I write here, tend to advise you on what to do in order to improve and be successful. There are many books that do the same, like . . . The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and 40 Strategies for Winning in Business. How about all the top 10, eight ways, seven things, five reasons, four ideas, two rules and the one most important system to…. (fill in the blank).

Who's On Your Bus?

Most business leaders feel that the vision and mission of the company is all important. They determine “what” they need to accomplish and then determine “who” should be part of their team to help them get there. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, observed that great companies identified the “who” first and secondarily figured out “what” they needed to accomplish. The problem with starting with the “what” is that when things change, as they are inevitably going to do, you realize you have the wrong people on your bus.

When Customers Complain

Have you ever experienced bad service and complained about it only to realize your complaints are falling on deaf ears? Some businesses feel they have enough demand for their products or services that they can ignore complainers. I will warn you this is a dangerous game to play. When a customer complains about something in your business, you really need to pay close attention to what they are saying. Remember, there could be 10 other customers who may have experienced similar dissatisfaction but for whatever reason don’t say anything to you.

Fail to Succeed

How many of us started out in life hearing the words from peers, parents and professionals that failure is bad? Schools around the world predominantly are run on pass/fail systems. Is not failure a judgment placed on us by others? If so, then what judgment they pass on us is, in truth, none of our business! It all comes down to how we interpret the result.

My Webster’s Dictionary defines failure as “unsuccessful in the obtaining of” — SAYS WHO??

The Absence of Trust

I recently recommended a book to a colleague of mine titled The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. It seemed the organization he was part of was struggling working together as a cohesive team. There was a lot of back-stabbing, poor communication and a lot of conflict that was nasty rather than constructive. If you haven’t read this book, I would highly recommend it.

Managing Salespeople

Many owners of small businesses get to a point when they want to hire salespeople. They do this for a couple of reasons. They don’t like to sell. Or they’re not good at selling. Or other parts of the business are demanding their attention and they don’t have the time to put into selling. Whatever the reasons, they feel they need to get someone to get out there a sell for them. But what I have seen far too often is that many owners have had bad experiences with managing and keeping good sales people.

Keep 'em Coming Back

Many businesses spend a lot of time and money trying to get new clients. It seems to be an ongoing process. So much time is spent generating leads, having conversations, submitting proposals, trying to close the sale. Unfortunately, I witness many businesses not spending as much time trying to get their existing clients to return. Once you have a customer why not spend some resources to get them to spend more with you?

Seal the Deal

You have generated the leads and set up appointments with qualified prospects. You have read all the sales training books and are ready to close some sales. You go on your appointments and follow the process you’ve learned. You build rapport, you ask the questions, you expose their pain, you offer the solution, you deal with the objections and you ask for the order. After all of that you still get “I want to think about it.” Or “I’m not sure this will work.” Or “I have to review this with my (boss, spouse, colleague etc). In the end you have difficulty sealing the deal.

Warm Up to Cold Calling

Most business people hate cold calling. Why is that? Primarily it is fear. Fear of rejection. Or maybe fear that you will be perceived as being aggressive or pushy on the phone. Or just that you are uncomfortable interrupting someone during their busy day. Whatever the issue is, I highly encourage you to get past these uncomfortable feelings.

The Bad Perception of Salespeople

In a recent workshop I facilitated I openly asked the business people in the room what they thought of salespeople. Now, mind you, most of the people in the room were business owners or employees all of which had a major role of growing their respective businesses. Here are some of the things I heard. “They lie.” “They’ll do anything to get the sale.” “All they care about is their own commission.” “They are irritating.” “I feel like I need to take a shower with antibiotic body wash after I deal with one” (actually, I made the last one up myself).

Do You Own a Business or a Job?

I’m sure you have heard these statistics before. Fifty percent of all businesses fail within two years, 80 percent fail within five years, and most businesses never come close to the original projections for revenue and profit.

Dealing With Employees During Hard Times

Managing your business during hard times is difficult. But managing people, the culture, the emotions, the behavior, can be doubly difficult when the business isn’t doing that well. Especially if you had to let some of the staff go. How do you keep the team upbeat and motivated when all there seems to be is bad news? How do you get the best out of your people during such times? There is so much uncertainty that employees seem to be constantly looking over their shoulder. Here are some ideas that may help you.

Staying Focused

How many of us have vowed to get back in shape? We want to start working out on a regular basis and lose that extra few pounds. So we join a gym or start an in home exercise program. We are gangbusters for the first couple of weeks but there is that one morning when we wake up and say, “maybe I’ll skip today, I just don’t feel like I have it this morning.” Then you try to get back into your exercise routine but you start exercising only three days a week instead of four. Then it goes to two days a week and then you get to the point you haven’t exercised in over a month.

How to Take Risks

As many of the people I have met know I am an avid golfer. Playing golf in this part of the country is primarily a summer sport unless you’re willing to layer up and confront the cold, which I am not. So what do I do in the winter months? This is where many people that I know are not aware of another passion I have. That is playing pool. I have played pool since my teenage years (some would say an ill spent youth) and take it very seriously. I have played every game imaginable on a pool table and constantly seek to increase my skills at the sport.

Making Mistakes

Who hasn’t made a mistake? We all have at some point. We would all like to think that we are perfect but we all know that is impossible. Yet we all try our hardest not to make mistakes. Some of us even get very anxious about it to the point it paralyzes us from doing things. We get fearful of making a mistake. It might make us look bad and maybe even embarrass us. These thoughts, of course, come from deep beliefs that were probably ingrained in us since we were young children.

How to DELEGATE

As a business owner are you exhausted at the end of the work day? Are you tired of doing everything yourself? Are your team members unwilling to make decisions and are coming to you for even the smallest of issues? The truth is that most business owners, who are skilled at just about every task in their company, struggle with the one thing that can make a big difference . .