Strategic Solutions – Business Coaching Firm

We all have the same 24 hours in a day. The quantity of time does not change. There are always sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in a hour. So how can you find an extra hour? The answer is to manage the time that you have available.

It is about our perception of time. When we are working at challenging projects, there never seems to be enough time. When we are bored, time seems to slow down. To change our perception, we need to change our attitude. To achieve more in the time available then you need to develop a time conscious attitude.

Examine your attitudes to determine if you need to change your thinking. If your goal is to make more sales but you avoid sales oriented activities, your behavior is inconsistent with your goals. If you want to achieve outstanding success, but you devote only minimal hours and average effort to work, your behavior is inconsistent with your goals.

Finally a time conscious attitude will help you develop new time conscious habits which will make you more productive.

Anyone who wants to increase their productivity in their life or profession has to get organized. Often that is easier said than done. The first step in to becoming organized is to set aside a specific amount of time to begin the process. Disorganization reduces your effectiveness and can make you feel out of control. A disorganized person often takes longer to accomplish a task because they have to spend time looking for things or information that an organized person has at their figure tips.

So how can you become organized? First thing is to make a commitment to yourself that you will become organized. If you are a person who says I would like to be more organized but I don’t know how, you need to stop and change today. It is a lot easier than you think. It involves the 3-D’s. No, that is not special glasses to watch a movie. It is Do it, Dump it or Delegate it.

Step 1 in the process is to set a minimum 2 hour appointment with yourself. Put it on your calendar. Turn off your phone , cell phone and computer. Put a do not disturb sign on your door.  During this appointment you are going to handle every piece of paper and other things in your office once.  You need to determine if it needs to be done, dumped or delegated. If you say that you have no one to delegate to, that is wrong. You can always outsource an activity. This is especially true if someone else can do it faster and better allowing you time to do what is more productive.

It is obvious that the dumped items are going away and uncluttering your office and life. Remember if you have not done anything with it in the past 6 months, you either need to throw it away or put it in storage. Even the IRS does not require you to keep things forever.

The delegated things are also going away where they will be properly handled and processed.

Finally you have the Do It group. Put them in 4 groups. Today, this week, Next week, When I have time. It is amazing how few things need to be done today. The problem is when we postpone doing them until tomorrow. The problem with tomorrow is that it never comes.  ” Today is yesterday’s tomorrow”.

So set yourself a goal to become a person who is determined to unclutter and begin doing today. You will amaze yourself on how much more relaxed and productive you will become.

Unless you know what you want to achieve, there’s no way to measure how close you are to achieving that objective. Goals give you a standard against which to measure your progress.

The goals you set for accomplishing the company’s/department’s mission must be in line with the vision and what your company wants you to do. If what you plan to achieve for your job, department, or team isn’t coordinated with the goals of your organization, you’ll waste your time and energy.

Goals are the foundation of motivational programs. By reaching toward your goals, you become motivated, and by knowing the goals of your team members and helping them reach those goals, you help to motivate them.

The process of setting goals takes time, energy, and effort. Goals aren’t something you scribble on a napkin during a coffee break-you must plan what you truly want to accomplish, establish timetables, determine who will do each action step, brainstorm all the possible obstacles, create a solution for the obstacles, review all of the rewards and consequences of achieving or not achieving the goal, and implement the goal.

Criteria for setting goals.

To ensure that goals can be accomplished, follow these guidelines for setting your goals. Your goals must be SMART.

S – SpecificM- MeasurableA – AttainableR – Realistically HighT – Target Date or Time Bound

Example: Your goal is to save money. This is a hazy goal. You could put one dollar in a jar and that hazy goal would have been accomplished. It does not conform to the above criteria.

Instead your goal could be – Save $100 per month for the next 12 months starting (today’s date) to be complete by (target date). This goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistically high, and has a target date. Happy Goal Setting!

Always create a powerful connection with your customer Have you ever thought about the criteria your customers use to evaluate positive service interactions with your organization? According to Zeithaml, Parasuraamn and Berry from their book Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, there are 5 key areas that customers use to evaluate service:

1. Reliability- can the customer depend on the organization to accurately and dependably provide service to them?
   

2. Assurance- does the service provider convey confidence about their product or service and do the customers trust that service provider?
   

3. Tangibles- this deals specifically with the appearance of the service area, the store, the lobby etc., and the appearance of the customer service provider. Is the environment pleasing and appropriate and is the service provider dressed appropriately, smiling, warm and genuinely open? If you are interacting with the customer via the phone obviously your smile, your tone of voice and listening intently will create positive points of connection with your customers.
   

4. Empathy- this is the strongest skill that demonstrates that the service provider genuinely cares.
   

5. Responsiveness- this involves the ability to provide prompt or timely service and measures the willingness of the service provider to help customers.
   

Stephen Covey refers to a concept of emotional bank accounts. An emotional bank account works like a financial bank account where there are deposits and withdrawals. Points of connection Points of connection, whether positive or negative, have a direct correlation to the customer’s emotional bank account. If the connection is a positive experience there is a direct deposit. A negative experience leads to an immediate withdrawal from the account. Often times, it takes numerous positive points of connection to create a deposit; however, it often only takes one negative point of connection to deplete an account.

How did you react to the last negative experience you had with a service provider? Was you last stay at a hotel positive or negative? What point of connection formed your decision? Is every point of connection in you business a positive one? Will your clients be adding to their emotional bank account for your business or are they planning to close the account. How can you know? Start now to find out! Create a process within your organization that provides the ability to monitor and measure every point of connection in your service cycle. By creating that process you will be focusing on making every customer experience valuable and hopefully positive.

If you want to know more about how to increase you Customer Loyalty contact Hank Sullivan at Strategic Solutions (510) 432-7596

Soon it will be St. Patrick’s Day and we will be talking about the the luck of the Irish.
In an article by Joe Sherlock, he points out that Luck is simply Preparation meeting Opportunity. That’s what the Irish (and other immigrants) did. They were prepared to find and cultivate opportunities; they made their own luck. So,to make your own luck for your business, you need to do two things.

First, make positive statements about your business, making sure that you’ve removed all negatives – put some blarney in there!
Second, get out there and network to expand your business base.
And, start doing it now; remember the old Irish proverb:
“You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”
So enjoy the wearing of the green and I hope you find your pot of gold

Many sales professionals know that a positive attitude is a key element, perhaps the most important element, to success in sales. Even though they know this, most sales professionals find it extraordinarily difficult to maintain a positive attitude all day, every day. The reason: most likely because they believe that their attitude is the result of external circumstances rather than something that is within their control.

Here are some tips to help you stay positive:

1. Create a new definition for yourself of “external circumstances.” You might think that hitting a few red lights on the way to an important meeting with a prospect could be seen as “bad luck” and put you in a bad mood. Definitely not a mood you want to convey to your next potential client! However, if you view those red lights as an indication to yourself of how wise it was of you to leave early, they take on a whole new meaning.

If you are late because of those lights, take it as an opportunity to collect yourself and brainstorm a damage-control strategy.

1. Begin every day with 15 minutes of positive input. If you fill your mind with positive thoughts, you’ll have a larger library of positivity to pull from when your day might not quite go as planned. Read an inspirational book or listen to motivational CD’s in the morning. We happen to know where you can get a few of those! Might we suggest popping in your Sales Development CD’s on your way to prospecting meetings? (If you need one contact us today)

2. Choose your news. You get bombarded everyday with a news media that believes in the mantra, “If it bleeds, it leads!” followed by commercials designed to make you feel better. Our media strives to ramp up your feelings of anxiety by highlighting horrific stories and follows them with advertising that helps you to buy comfort food or medications to relieve the pressures of everyday life. Unplug yourself from this negative imagery. Find alternative sources to keep yourself up to date with the day’s events, such as public radio or print news. It’s easy to choose what to read and listen to.

3. Surround yourself with positive people. Business associates, friends, and relatives who have a negative view about life can make it hard for you to maintain your positive attitude. These people can drain you mentally and physically. Wherever possible, avoid them or at least limit your contact with them. If you cannot avoid them, don’t get drawn into lengthy gripe sessions. Listen empathetically and turn the conversation to a more positive topic as soon as you can. On the other hand, positive people can enhance your life and help to keep you upbeat and with a good outlook on your world.

Business in recent years has taken on many new and complex dimensions, and this trend is likely to continue. The field of sales has also seen some dramatic and far-reaching changes. Today’s salesperson, as well as today’s buyer, is better educated, more informed and has more options than ever before. These changes have created new, exciting and challenging possibilities in every organization. Sales Development is significantly different from sales training. In training, knowledge is transferred from one person to another. Development occurs only when knowledge is internalized, creating a behavioral change that leads to the expression of positive, results-oriented skills.

Today’s business is sales-driven and today’s salesperson is a key link to success in business. One element that distinguishes profitable companies from non-profitable companies is their ability to better develop their salespeople. The result is salespeople who sell because they want to excel, and succeed because they understand why and how to utilize their knowledge. The Sales Development process not only makes sales development possible, but eminently profitable.

Key Areas:

Success in Sales

The Buying/Selling Process

Your Personal and Professional Growth

Prospecting Fundamentals

Planning Your Success Part I

Prospecting: Advanced Techniques

Communication Skills

Getting Appointments

Planning Your Success Part II

The Introduction

Gaining Favorable Attention

Discovering Wants and Needs

Building the Case for Action

Presenting Benefits and Consequences

Getting Commitment and Follow Up

Overcoming Obstacles for Continued Success in Sales

A leader combines the vision and curiosity of a dreamer with the practical engineering of a builder. A leader is goal directed, looking forward with anticipation toward the attainment of goals. Goals give meaning and purpose to life and serve as a continuous source of motivation in the pursuit of all activities. The capacity for leadership exists in everyone, but most people never take the time to develop it. Leadership is determination, courage, confidence and the ability to view a situation and respond to it.

Positive Leadership assumes that goals can be accomplished, the job can be done, the problem can be solved and obstacles can be overcome. Leaders create their own future because they have faith in themselves.

Key Areas:

· You Possess the Ability to Lead

· Preparation for Leadership

· A Product of the Past

· Formal Leadership

· Goal Setting for Success

· Building Success Attitudes and Habits

· Developing Your Personal Goals Program

· Turning Solutions into Action

· Understanding and Affirming Your Self

· Managing Your Time

· Communications and Human Relations

· Decision Making and Problem Solving

· Motivation

· Continuing Your Leadership Growth

Success in today’s complex global arena is challenging and the rules are changing. For an organization to compete globally, executive leaders will have to create an organizational culture in which everyone is challenged to seek innovative and improved methods of doing business. Leading today’s organization into tomorrow’s competitive arena will require teamwork, collaboration and speed. To create and lead an organization that will maintain a competitive advantage during such turbulent times, many executives will have to transform an organizational culture that was founded on yesterday’s paradigms. Priorities will have to shift and thinking will have to change.

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The word empower is often over-used. Many employers talk about empowering their employees but often employees feel disempowered. Here’s a list of the top 10 things you can do that will really empower your employees, according to employees, not employers!

1. Allow employees to actively participate in team and company goals.
Look for every opportunity to include employees at every level of the organization, in being active participants. Employees often report getting one-way directives instead.
2. Allow employees to suggest better ways of getting their jobs done.
Ask for employee suggestions for other ways of getting the task or project accomplished. Listen and be willing to really hear the employees’ comments. Employees often report that they have no input and are told exactly how to perform their jobs, leaving no creativity.
3. Provide positive reinforcement.
Always listen and acknowledge your employees. Employees often report that their decisions and actions are second-guessed and that most, if not all, feedback given is negative.
4. Clearly delegate responsibility and give the employees authority along with the responsibility.
Do you give inconsistent messages? Do you ask the employee to handle a problem or project and then give them negative feedback or give them an assignment and then say, “never-mind?” Employees often report that they are given tasks and then told they did it wrong.
5. Be clear in your communication.
When you express goals or explain projects, be sure the employees really understand what you are asking for. Employees often report that the goals are unclear and that they are not sure what they are being asked to do.
6. Show you have trust in your employees.
Allow them to make mistakes as a form of learning. Show that it is really OK to make mistakes. Let them know you really support their decisions. Employees often report that someone is always looking over their shoulder to make sure they do things right.
7. Listen. Listen. Listen.
Do you do most of the talking? Employees often report that conversations are one way, comprised mostly of their ideas being criticized. They don’t feel they are heard.
8. Be interested in the employees’ career development.
Meet with employees and discover their goals and their wants. Employees often report that their goals are not viewed as important in the organization.
9. Let the employees help you achieve success.
Are you doing it all yourself? Employees often report that their managers do all the tasks and that they have no way to make contributions outside their job descriptions. Look for opportunities to delegate and enhance the employees’ career development at the same time.
10. Be a coach.
The best way to empower employees is not to manage them. Coach them to success. This is a process of developing their skills and providing them specific feedback to meet high standards. Employees often report feeling like children rather than being on the same team with their bosses. Be their coach and lead the team to success!

For more information visit Strategic Solutions website at www.stratsolutions.net.