A Grave v’s a Rutt…

Simple – a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out!

I was visiting a client South of Sydney a while back. This guy may have well been in a grave the rut was so deep. No heart, no passion and you wonder why he has trouble finding great staff. He said to me “I wish my staff were on the same page as me” – I said, “show me the page”; he paused and looked at me quizzically.

He got the point, no plans, no goals, no vision or purpose. His purpose was to earn a measly $1000 per week for 80 hours of input, all while watching his 2 teenage kids lives slip by.

My advice, go get a job, at least it would be better than earning $12.50 an hour before tax!!!

In order to succeed in business and in life you got to have passion…. get out of the rut before it tuns into a grave.

Decisions Decisions!!!

One of the most frustrating things I see in small business is the inability of business owners to make decisions. Lets face it we have all reached this point in time / life when we are faced with making a decision! Some are simple, some are tough and some require analysis before a decision can be made.

Whenever I work with a client and we reach a decision cross road, I am reminded of the book that Napoleon Hill wrote in the early 1900’s – Think and Grow Rich. In the book he (Mr Hill) described the decision making style of those that had done exceptionally well in life as one that was very simple. Make a quick one and stick with it, trust your “gut instinct”.

Regardless of the size of the decision, you already know the answer deep down, make the decision and stick with it.

The time frame taken to make a decision is directly proportional to the success you have in life, i.e. a long time = less success, a short time = more success.

What is your decision making process, do you make a quick one, do you vacillate over the decision for ages, do you sit on the fence, do you ask a bunch of others for their thoughts?

What Science Know s v’s what Business does!!

A fascinating video from Al Gores “ex” speech writer Dan Pink, on the outdated principle of what businesses do to motivate people versus the tried and tested scientific understanding of what truly motivates people to do well in their jobs.  This guy is onto something!!!!

If sales was a production line – how much wastage would you tolerate?

Think about this – if the typical sales process was measured in the same way that manufacturing was, how much wastage or how many product failures would you be prepared to put up with??  If you measured wastage in your sales process and figured out that around 60%+ of sales effort was wasted, how much time would you really sink into fixing this problem?

I was presenting to 30 small business owners from around Sydney last week doing a session on understanding the sales process in detail. I love hosting this workshop as it gets people to really drill down into their sales process and look for holes or areas to improve.  For most, this is the first time they have attempted this simple but not easy task.

I start with a large sheet of paper (A3) and get participants to list on the left side all the ways their company generates leads, you know, the web site, sales people, telemarketing, direct mail, radio, TV, news papers, Yellow Pages, tenders, proposals, cold calling, referrals, networking, newsletters, building signage, uniforms…….

The I get them to pick the most profitable source of leads and we then concentrate on this one strategy and drill down into how the process works. Lets take telemarketing for example:

• who are you targeting, is it geographical, based on business size, industry type, decision maker level etc…
• where do you source lists, i.e. who has lists of your perfect client
• when you call what is the script your team use and is it effective
• when you book an appointment what do you send out, info pack, company profile…
• who confirms the appointment
• when you turn up, what is the process…..

The list goes on.  We break each section down and then clean it up, improve it, add bits and then put it back together.

Why do we do this – every business failure comes down to a lack of sales.

So get to it, design your sales pathway your Yellow Brick Road to sales and stop wasting time and $$$$ in doing something less efficiently that you really could do.

Sensational Customer Service

I found myself up on the roof on the weekend looking over the solar heating equipment up on the roof prior to the fast approaching summer.  I poked and proded the small hoses running along the roof line.  I tugged a few joins with the aim of finding out if the system would click into gear and work perfectly once I wanted to raise the pool temp above the ice cold 14c.

To my surprise I found a weakness and pulled the hose from the main out flowing pipe and managed to lose the tiny grommet that held the small pipe in the big pipe (tech speak).  I then had to get out the ops manual for the system to find out how to get this thing fixed.  I couldn’t have the kids getting frost bite when they jumped in.

I found the name of the company who sold the unit to the previous owner of the home we now own and called them.  I was feeling a little stupid trying to buy a 10c item and to my surprise I was given the royal treatment from this company.  They listened to my ramblings, assured me that this was common and then proceeded to arrange to send me not just one but half a dozen of these things at no cost.

These guys bent over backwards to see my troubles fixed, it was quite amazing.  I was transferred twice and each time the next person in the line was fully informed of my challenge, was sympathetic to my cause and I felt that nothing was a problem for them, even though they were on making a sale.

2 Hours later I decided to call the owner of the business and congratulate him for having such dedicated customer service professionals working for him.  He was grateful for receiving the call.  I just had to share this simple story, they are few and far between these days.

What is the economy doing – RIGHT NOW?

As I speak with business owners around Sydney about the economy and listen to commentators from around the globe, I am left somewhat confused as to where the economy is RIGHT NOW.

• Real Estate agents are rubbing their hands with the upturn, we are having rental auctions here where rental properties are given to the highest bidder,
• business confidence surveys are showing the highest level of confidence for months and months,
• commodity prices are on the up,
• restaurants are doing a brisk trade,
• share markets are in BULL mode,
• Warren Buffet is back in the market

However I really do get the feeling that this is the eye of the storm.  I am not too sure if these GREEN SHOOTS are really shoots and not the weeds that spring up after the tough economic winter!!

I am interested in your feedback / comments on the state of the economy from your perspective.  Please circulate this around and let me know your thoughts….

Million Dollar Dinner…

Last night we took our $1m coaches out for a dinner to thank them for their dedication to both the business and their clients. We booked them into Tetsuya’s one of Sydney’s top restaurants. The entire experience was sensational, from the confirmation call the day before, the welcome at reception, the wait staff, the food, the wine,the ambience….tough to fault.

Now as coaches we sat there and figured out what this success meant in terms of $$ turnover for the business, here goes.

115 seats with 1 sitting per night and an av$ sale per person of around $320. Multiply that out by 350 days per year and you get to a whopping $13,000,000+ per year. Not bad for a 115 seat restaurant!!!

Now over the last few weeks I have interviewed 2 restaurant owners with between 120 and 150 seats and their annual turnover was less than what Tetsuya’s do in an average month!! Now why the gap – lots of reasons, the main one is that they have not yet found the recipe for success. If you have read my stuff about restaurants previously you will know that it is not hard to double turnover in an average performing restaurant, it’s the simple things that make the big difference.

So, to cut a long story short, we had an amazing night and will be heading back there some time soon. I have already had 6 people ask me about my experience, what do you think I have told them and how many of them have put this restaurant on their list of places to go??

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Business on Twitter

Found this on the web and thought you might like to a) get your head around it or b) get someone you know who has been stubborn about the whole Twitter thing to get their head around it…

Here is the link.  The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Marketing Your Business on Twitter

What will the mediascape look like in 2015?

Spring has sprung – are you ready for growth?

The economic winter is over, the thaw is happening and spring is on its way – both literally in the southern hemisphere and figuratively in the northern hemisphere.  Is your business ready fro growth?

For those who got rid of staff, its now time to start recruiting and training, remembering that it will typically take 2 – 3 months for someone to come up to speed; depending on the industry of course.  now it’s time to get the low cost high impact marketing strategies out there and active.  What I mean is

• liven up old accounts,
• go through old quotes,
• revisit those clients you did not convert and find out how the chosen supplier is treating them
• Speak with current clients about re-ordering
• hold closed door sales for the new season items
• offer bulk deals or bundled products / services
• 2 for one deals
• $10 Tuesdays
• read Brad Sugars – Instant Cashflow for 282 other ideas……

In other words – GET OUT THERE!!!  The time is right, the economy is looking for deals and interest free options.  Look at what Harvey Norman and Domanye are doing in this space.  They actually never stopped marketing through the entire so called GFC period.

Remember, interest rates will be climbing, protect your cashflow, pay off debt as fast as possible, oil proces will only rise with all the unrest in the middle east (elections, US and EU troops pulling out etc…)

It’s time to take the bull by the horns and get out there.

Good luck…