Can you increase your productivity by 50 %?

Maybe, just maybe, you can. Here is a tip that might help you to do just that.  Make a file of the “Stuff” you have to do. Include all of those things that are not “Close to the Money”. I like those colored file folders for this or even better one of those accordion folders with the fold over flap and string.  Just chuck it all in there for now.

 

Deal with it away from your desk, phone, and computer. Go where you can’t be disturbed. A library or coffee shop can make this chore a break from the chaos of the daily office battle. When you are there, only work on the “Stuff” that is in the folder. I’ll bet that you get it done in 1/3 less time this way. You also gain more productive time when you are back in the office and you lose the start / stop of our interrupt driven world.

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Here are the top 5 reasons that sales people quit

1. Lack of Training – training is an investment VS. an expense

2. Lack of Tools- CRM software, poor or no marketing material, no prospect lists, etc.

3. Lack of Support – poor team support, pressure & ridicule, etc

4. Lack of Leadership- good people quit the boss not the job. They need a leader with a plan!

5. Broken Promises- $$ , Changed Comp plan after X days, no help, etc

These are the times that try men’s souls

 

Has the time come for you to reinvent yourself or to get your skills updated? I have done so several times myself.
Brian Tracy, Motivator and Speaker talks about “Zero Based Thinking”. It means knowing what you know now, what would you do more of, less of or perhaps not at all? I recommend that you do this each quarter. Is it time to drop some activities or to take a new direction? Do this exercise ASAP. Then TAKE ACTION
I am currently working on an EBook and exploring 2 new business ventures and I recently got some good press in a Staffing Industry Magazine.
Working with an Executive Coach, SI Review April 2009
Posted Date: 3/31/2009
Issue: Staffing Industry Review Magazine
April 2009 Issue
How about you? Do you want and deserve a higher and better vision for yourself. Do you need to break out of a rut?
• Review your goals – are you on target?
• Block time on your calendar each week for the most important activities.
• Indulge in self care. Take care of yourself
• Get yourself a Coach or an Accountability Partner

5 MORE Tips For A “Recession Reinvention” that won’t cost any money

 

By Tom Kennedy  Tomt@kennedyccc.com

6. Get uncomfortable

This economy is making everyone uncomfortable.  Embrace it!  Step outside of your comfort zone and try something that scares you and gets your blood pumping.  This will certainly get the creative juices flowing and will lead to new ideas, insights and growth.  Your business will benefit greatly.

 

7. Give stuff away

No doubt you have a lot of wisdom that you may typically charge for.  Package it up and start giving some of it away.  It’s the best marketing you can do for your business right now.  Consider conducting a free seminar, write some articles, provide some pro bono work, offer some free consulting to your best customer or an influential prospect.  Watch how quickly it starts to spread and gets you noticed.

 

8. Recycle

No not your cans and plastic…old content.  Don’t waste valuable time and resources creating all new material when you may have some real gems that were created in the past.  Sift through your files, old blog posts, past presentations, seminars, etc and pull out the info that is still relevant today.  Update wherever necessary and repurpose it for use today.  Your new product or service may be hiding in one of those file cabinets right now.

 

9. Go surfing

It really is amazing how smart, creative and innovative you can become after spending as little as 10 minutes surfing the web.  Over the past several years there has been an explosion of sites, applications, tools, networks, technology etc that can help your business in countless ways.  Make it a habit everyday to block off some time to just explore what is out there.  I guarantee you’ll end the day smarter than when you started.  A few must visit sites/applications on my list include Mashable, Digg, Delicious, Twitter, Alltop, Stumble Upon, Technorati and Google Reader.

 

10. Play with your kids

This happens to be my favorite. When I find myself in a creative rut I often look no further than my four kids for some fresh innovation. If you don’t have kids then go borrow some for this exercise! Spread a bunch of miscellaneous stuff on the floor like blocks, paper, crayons, action figures, rubber balls, etc.  Get down on the floor and just start playing.  Observe what your kids do and how their minds work.  Work alongside them and let your imagination take over. Then wait…..  I guarantee you will walk away with something that you can apply in your business today.

 

Bonus # 11 – Have a “Grand Re-Opening”

There is so much bad news circulating around these days.  Don’t get sucked into it.  Celebrate your business any way you can.  Once you have completed your Recession Reinvention have a Grand Reopening event to create some buzz.  This can be an entirely virtual event conducted over the web or email and cost nothing.  If you’ve made some interesting changes to your business lately make sure the world knows about it. 

5 of 10 Tips For A “Recession Reinvention” that won’t cost any money

 There really couldn’t be a better time to make some changes in your business. What’s the down side? Is there really much risk? The poor economy is providing a great opportunity to experiment, shake things up and try out some new approaches that perhaps weren’t feasible in the past. Now I’m not suggesting that you blow up your entire business model and start over, but perhaps taking some of these steps below will create a new competitive advantage and position you for future success.

1. Buy from yourself…then from others When was the last time you strolled through your sales process like one of your prospects? You’d probably be quite surprised at what you’d learn if you did. Most likely you’ll find several things that you should change that weren’t as obvious to you before. Consider having a friend go undercover to play the role of potential buyer and interact with your sales team and then report back. Compare this experience with other businesses within and outside your industry. Take what works well from other businesses and apply it to yours.

 2. Make quick decisions Deliberating on important decisions is obviously an important thing to do, especially when business is not going well. However, procrastination seems to be prevalent these days because people are afraid to make the wrong decisions. This can quickly lead to paralysis. Trust your gut, make the best decision you can, and move on.

3. Break something We’ve all heard the expression “if it isn’t broken…” Forget it. Go break something in your business today that you know could be done a lot better. Maybe it’s a process, a service, your website, a product. Find something, smash it to pieces, and then rebuild it better than ever.

4. Kiss Keep it simple stupid…timeless advice. Now is not the time to make things complicated. Stick with the basics. Play to your strengths.

 5. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….. Are your sales pitches a cure for insomnia? Regardless of what business you’re in it should never be boring to your prospects and customers. Seth Godin always talks about being remarkable. Every business can do it. It really is a choice. Make a list of all the things that make you different from your competitors and then think of some really exciting ways to demonstrate it.

By Tom Kennedy – tom@kennedyccc.com – Look for the next 5 real soon

Selling Strategies for the NON Sales Professional is the title…

           ….of my book.   Running a service business is hard enough, but you also have to be able to sell your services in order to STAY in business. Who knew that you would need to have sales skills in addition to being good at your profession?

 

Sales training may NOT be what you need in order to succeed at developing your confidence and your selling skills. There are a number of things that you can do regularly to increase your contact with prospective customers. Some of them are:

 

• Overcoming the fear of rejection
• Learning how and where to network
• Discover what “speed bumps” of yours are holding you back from selling your services effectively

 

Clients choose YOU before they hire you to perform a service for them. You must be able to sell yourself first. Check out my book on Amazon.com, Lulu.com or on my website http://www.growingtreepartners.com to read an excerpt.

Better yet, get a copy of my book! You can be your own coach with this interactive workbook. I wrote it for you to be able to get much of what my clients get from me as their coach. Use the techniques that I share here and you will grow your business NOW!

I am passionate about helping people to succeed in their business. I will give you practical support for the price of a few Lattés.

 

 

Training without coaching is entertainment

I’ll bet that you’ve had this experience MANY times: you attend a training session or a workshop (or send your staff) and you get all excited; Sooo many great ideas; you can’t wait to get back to the office; everything is going to be different.  You are going to start doing things in new and better ways. Then, three weeks later what happened?  Probably nothing!

 

Now, I know that lots of very smart, very hard working folks put together the training programs that we all enjoy – I’ve put on quite a few myself.  But in my heart of hearts, I know that it isn’t likely to add up to much in the way of REAL / SUSTAINABLE change.  Most trainers know this as well which is why so much of training is coming to be called “edu-tainment”. 

 

There is a reason this happens.  We always adapt to our environment. Since your current environment was designed by the “old you”, you will naturally adapt back to it and most of your insights and big ideas will fade into memory. In addition the pressures in the “real world” tend to mount up quickly and so you jump back into familiar behavior patterns.

 

The solution …… environmental design coaching that is all about supporting YOU.  If your coach is there to help you make significant changes to your environment or to your behaviors in order to support the “inside” changes you made at the conference, lasting results become the natural outcome. It takes time, support and feedback to make behavioral changes.

 

If you are going to invest in training, then hire a coach to help you cement that positive changes that you wish to make.

F E A R

T

he fear of rejection or fear of failure can hold you back from building a successful business. Our fears need to be managed by building skills, and by practicing those skills to gain some confidence. Zig Zigler, motivational speaker, describes it with an acronym.

F E A R

False

    Evidence

Appearing

     Real

Many times it is our own “Head Trash” that holds us back. That little voice in our head can sabotage us if we are not careful. Our fears and concerns are nature’s way of alerting us that we may not be fully prepared to succeed. Instead of stopping us in our tracks, we should hear it as a signal to get help so that we can overcome our fears and build confidence.

Ø        Adults learn best by the Know, Show, and Do method.

Ø        You must know what to do

Ø        Someone can show you what to do

Then you must get out and practice the new skill

This is an excerpt from my book $elling Strategies for NON Sales Professionals. It is available on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%24elling+Strategies+for+NON+Sales&x=18&y=19

 

 

Communications Skills 101

If you want to be a good communicator and also a good persuader you will need to learn to not try too hard!  That is surely counter intuitive. If people sense that you are trying to hard to persuade them they may resist you says Kurt Mortenson in his book; “Maximum Influence”. People need a reason to trust you before they will accept what you are saying.  Listening builds trust.

 

In order to listen well you will need to get comfortable with the silent spots in a conversation. When someone stops talking you will need to develop the discipline to keep quiet and be patient long enough for them to start speaking.  I once had a boss who was a master at this. It is unbelievable what you would wind up telling him just because he went silent.  People will open up to you if you create the conditions for that to happen.  When you learn from them what they are most interested in or concerned about then you will be able to give them a targeted response. This much more effective and persuasive than presenting a laundry list of things that you hope will win them over.

 

Introverts tend to listen more than they speak. That is because they need to think about their statement and responses. Studies have even shown that introverts often out persuade extroverts because they ask more questions and are inclined to listen more.

 

Try to listen more for the next week and then just see the results for yourself. It only takes a few weeks to develop a new and better habit.

Don’t be a Frustrated Business Owner

 

            Frustrated Company Owners and Managers that I have coached often tell me about certain employees who drift off of the objectives that have been established. These employees are modifying the boss’s message and making into something that they think that they should be doing.

 

            After listening to my clients for a bit, I’ll ask them “How often do you sit with this person to review the quality of their work and to give them feedback”? The answers I get vary from never, to rarely, to only when things are way off course. That is when I tell my clients that they are part of the problem.  Then I will coach them to set up regular review and feedback sessions with all key employees.

 

It seems that folks in leadership roles assume that their employees should be self managing. That, my friends, is rarely the case in reality.  So, resolve to take an active role in managing your staff. Both they and you will be pleased with the results.