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.

Investing In "YOU"

When people talk about investing, they immediately think of investing money somewhere. Maybe in real estate, in the stock market or possibly bonds or maybe something relatively safe like CDs. They may strategize and make sure their portfolio is “diversified.” However, when I talk about investing I like to think about how you can invest in yourself. After all YOU are one of the greatest assets you can invest in.

Why Do People Fail?

If you have read enough articles and books or listened to the many self-help experts out there you will find consistent factors as to why people fail. We could be talking about many different kinds of failures. Certainly business failures but also failures in many other endeavors such as weight lose, improved health, relationships and so on. The two common denominators that I have observed with any failure seems to be the lack of planning and the lack of taking correct actions to achieve that plan.

What Do These Objections Mean?

When selling your services or products I’m sure most of you get objections much like I do. “I would like to think about this,” or “I don’t have time to do any of this,” or “I’m not ready yet,” or “That seems expensive,” or “Call me back in a couple of months.” What does all this mean? Most likely they are afraid of making a bad decision. If they spend the money and it’s the wrong product or service they will look foolish. And no one wants to look foolish. How do you overcome these fears?

Changing Habits

We all have them. Some of them good, some of them bad. Habits are those things we do without too much thought. We kind of go through our day and they just happen.

Help! My Sales Have Fallen and I Can't Pick Them Up!

We’ve all experienced it. Sales have been down and for some reason you can’t get out of the hole. Cash is tight. You start to get nervous. You start to blame everything around you. The economy is in the tank, your prospects won’t return your calls, your proposal didn’t get mailed on time, your car broke down going to an appointment . . . on and on and on. Ok, many of these things could be a cause for a slip in sales. But then these are all things out of your control. So what can you control? The answer to that is . . . yourself and the actions you take!

Your Attitude, Your Choice

I have recommended to many of my clients the book titled “FISH”. It’s a book about how to improve moral in any organization and thereby improve results. There are actually four principles in the book but, I think, the most important one of them is called “Choose Your Attitude.” The philosophy goes something like this. When you go to work, or run your business, or do just about anything in life the attitude you bring to that event is your choice. And depending on the type of attitude you bring will primarily determine the type of experience you will have.

The Cash Gap

In a previous post, I talked about planning and managing the financial aspects of your business. Included in that was the importance of managing cash flow. I’d like expand on that principle and specifically talk about the concept called “The Cash Gap.” What is the cash gap? Well, it’s simply the number of days between when you have to pay for things in your business and when your customers end up paying you. For example, you might have to buy materials to produce a product or buy inventory to stock your shelves.

Plan and Count Your Beans

As a former Director of Corporate Financial Planning for a large corporation and with a degree in accounting I have heard my share of bean counter jokes. Like this one: “what does an accountant use for birth control . . . his personality.” Jokes aside, for the past six years, as a business coach, I have found that my financial background has helped me teach business owners how to run their business more effectively.

Goals and Resolutions — How To Get Them Done!

It’s an annual ritual . . . setting resolutions and looking at the goals we want to achieve in the New Year. How did it go last year? Did the goals and resolutions you made start to fade after just a few months? Did you start out gang busters only to look back at the end of the year not even getting close to the goals you set for yourself and your business? If so, either you did not commit fully or face it; you don't have the resolve to make the changes on your own.

If It Ain't Broke, Should I Still Fix It?

When was the last time you really took a close look at how you are doing things and asked yourself “how can I do this faster, cheaper, simpler and easier while maintaining quality and customer satisfaction?” In the “old days” this might be something you look at once every couple of years. However, in today’s highly competitive and rapidly changing environment I would suggest you need to ask yourself this on a daily basis. Otherwise you might find yourself left in the proverbial dust.