May 2008

Failure is NOT an Option

Small business owners and all commission-only sales professionals are special people.  You are special because of your commitment, your persistence, and your determination.  You have a tremendous work ethic.  If all it takes is hard work you can’t fail. 

You know, however, hard work alone simply doesn’t cut it.  You’ve probably worked yourself into a corner more than once.  You weren’t sure how you were going to get out, what to do next, or where to turn. 

You were way too close and too emotionally vested at those times.  Those times represent very dangerous and precarious business situations.  The decisions made during those times can change the direction of your business moving forward. 

Recall when things went well in your business.  You were focused on what you needed to do.  You didn’t allow distractions or side paths to keep you from getting where you clearly saw you needed to go.  You can regain this position of focused confidence once again, and get back on track for success. 

No matter what business you’re in the basic business requirements include:

·        You need to attract the attention of the people most likely to buy from you

·        You must create a strong interest in what you have to offer, and motivate those prospects to act

·        You must have an offer spelling out the exact action you want the prospect to take

·        From the prospects who took you up on your offer you must have a system to sift out the ready buyers, and cultivate everyone else into a ready buyer

·        You must be able to hold a conversation with your prospects helping them to make the best buying decision for them

·        You must be able to provide your service in a way that exceeds their expectations

·        You must develop a system to build a relationship with your clients leading to repeat business and referrals

When you get all these things right you simply cannot fail.  Therefore, if you aren’t getting what you want, one or more of these critical business requirements isn’t working for you.  Which of the seven requirements are less than optimal in your business?

You are a super hero; however, even super heroes have a side kick.  Even a super hero needs someone to help them.  Which of the seven requirements can you improve on your own?  Which of the seven requirements are you better served getting help with from someone else?

Before you reach out and get the help you need, define what outcomes you want.  What are the outcomes you want for your customer?  How do you foresee functionally providing these outcomes? 

When was the last time you stepped back and took a big picture look at where you are now, and where you want to be?  How much clearer would you be on next steps if you took the time to develop this big picture plan for your business?  How much easier would it be for you to know what to do if you knew exactly what you wanted?

April 2008

You Receive What You Believe

·        How did Mr. and Mrs. Claus die? 

·        What do Mr. and Mrs. Claus look like? 

Are you thinking Mr. and Mrs. Claus are rather round older folks with white hair wearing red velvet garments?  That may be your belief based on your past knowledge and experience, but in this instance Mr. and Mrs. Claus are gold fish.  The wind blowing through the open window knocked their fish bowl off the table onto the floor, breaking the bowl leaving glass, water and Mr. and Mrs. Claus dead on the floor. 

You want improved results from your sales efforts.   Improved results require positive behavioral changes because there is something either you are doing now, or something you aren’t doing now that is preventing you from getting the sales success you know is possible. 

You may be wondering if it’s possible for you especially if your attitude about sales isn’t all that positive.  There are things successful sales people do that you don’t, and things they don’t do that you do.  List those do’s and don’ts.  Recognize that these actions are based on behaviors.         

Your behaviors are based on your attitudes.  Your attitudes combined with your skills and knowledge produce the outcomes you get from the actions you take.  Knowledge comes from knowing what to do, and skills come from knowing how to do what you need to do.  If you’re lacking knowledge or skills reach out to those around you, and get the help you need.  More often than not it isn’t that you lack the skills and knowledge you need to succeed.  Rather your attitudes impact the way you use those skills and knowledge producing undesirable results.      

Your sales attitudes and beliefs developed at a very young age.  Now it takes a concentrated effort to make changes to those long-held beliefs. 

    As you were growing up the adults around you told you not to talk to strangers, not to speak unless spoken to, and not to go where you aren’t wanted.  Those long-held beliefs are the engine that pulls your sales train down the track.  Your sales will continue to suffer until you change those damaging beliefs based on current facts. 

However, you can’t change beliefs you don’t realize you hold.  Therefore, you have to first identify the beliefs you hold.  Those beliefs are so ingrained and so automatic that you almost have to catch yourself in the act of demonstrating your beliefs through your actions.  When you approach a potential prospect does your heart pound so loudly in your chest that you can hardly hear anything around you?  When you have an experience like that acknowledge your response, and then ask yourself based on the facts if your reaction is valid for the current situation.  What is the worst thing that could happen if you were to introduce yourself to this prospect and start a conversation?  If that horrible thing were to happen could you live with the consequences?  What is the best thing that could happen?  If that best thing were to happen wouldn’t it far outweigh the worst thing?  Adapt your beliefs to fit your current needs and start enjoying sales success.

March 2008

Are You Asking the Right Questions?

You may not be using the right questions now.  Do you and your prospect feel uncomfortable with the questions you're asking?  When you ask a question does your prospect stutter and stammer around almost squirming in their chair?  That’s a clear signal that you’re not asking the right questions.  Questions are one of the most powerful persuasion tools in your sales tool kit if used properly.  

When you ask a good question the prospect will often comment, “that’s a great question”.  The prospect will engage and actively think about the question before thoughtfully responding.  They will not only answer the question, they’ll tell you a little more.  And that’s exactly what you want the prospect to do.  You need the prospect to openly share their goals with you before you can ever help them let alone offer them a solution.         

When your questions get that kind of thoughtful reaction you know you’re on the right track.  But you may not understand why the question you asked was a good question.  It’s a good question when:

·        it demonstrates you understand the prospect and what they want,

·        it hits a nerve with something they really want and are frustrated about because they aren’t sure how to get it themselves,

·        it helps them to envision a future they want,

·        it helps them to clarify what’s keeping them from having it now,

·        it helps them to explore how not having whatever it is they want is impacting their life,

·        and it helps them to articulate the real value of what they want.    

Obviously you can’t do all that with one question.  But one question can get the prospect or client to open up and really talk to you allowing you to engage them in a conversation that leads to a cascade of questions.  Each question should make logical sense and follow with what the prospect has just told you.  To have that happen you have to really listen to what the prospect is telling you.

Your great questions will separate you from your competition.  As you ask questions and the prospect responds they’ll start to feel very comfortable with you, and they’ll feel like you understand them better than anyone they’ve ever talked to before.  Part of the value of sales coaching comes from helping you to learn how to hold sales appointments that feel like great conversations and result in more sales. 

Part of the power of the right questions is in how well you listen to what the prospect says.  Nothing angers a prospect more or causes them to reject you quicker than when you ask a question that doesn’t have relevance to what they’ve just said.  When you do that the prospect feels disrespected, and they feel like they’re being sold. 

No one likes to be sold.  In fact, people hate to be sold.  But everyone loves to buy.  And prospects buy with enthusiasm and conviction when what they want can be provided by someone they trust.

The easiest way to garner trust is to ask great questions and listen.  In reality it just doesn’t get any easier than this.  Yet most sales people completely blow it because they think they have to use and follow a presentation that disrespects the prospect and their interests, and they talk way too much.  So stop talking and start asking.  You’ll be amazed by the impact on your sales results.

February 2008

Seven reasons why cold calling is the poorest way to prospect

January 2008

Wealth Building is not direstley proportional to effort

If you’re an insurance agent or financial advisor there are two ways you can make it in this business, the hard way or the smart way.  Unfortunately, most agents and advisors try the hard way and fail.  Most agent’s think if they just work hard enough and pay their dues they’ll make it.  In fact, they’re even told that by their mentors.

Yet the statistics prove that’s far from the truth.  Working yourself to death doesn’t get you wealth.  It just burns you out, and destroys your self-confidence leaving you broken with little to show for all your hard work.  Doing “what everyone else does” isn’t how you work smarter, and it isn’t how you build your own personal wealth.  

Working smarter means your focus has to be on results and productivity not activity.  Activity doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with results.  Review your activity this week.  How many appointments were you able to hold?  Of those appointments how many have a realistic chance of turning into business within the next three months?  If you find that getting appointments is a struggle, and that few of the people you meet with are real prospects accept that you’re working harder not smarter.    

Productivity is directly proportional to the quality of the appointments you hold.  If you want to increase the quality of your appointments you have to change who you’re focusing on and why.  If you don’t know why someone should want to meet with you how do you expect them to?  People are very self-centered it’s just a fact, and people are always looking for something that benefits them personally.  You can’t expect the people you want to talk with to guess, or connect the dots to figure out why they would want to meet with you. 

You need to know your prospects better than they know themselves.  That’s impossible when you’re trying to meet with anyone and everyone.  Thinking that you can work with everyone, and that everyone should want to work with you guarantees that you’ll have a tough time succeeding in this business because no one has a reason to want to talk to you.  Instead you must be able to clearly articulate in a succinct and emotionally powerful benefit that resonates with your ideal prospects.  Then and only then will they be interested in learning about you and what you do.      

If wealth building were directly proportional to effort there would be a ton of success in the industry, but we both know that isn’t the case.  Many agents and advisors are five or more years in the business, and still struggling to scratch out a meager existence and don’t have the potential to change their future on their own.  Doing what everyone else is doing just doesn’t help you.  When you do that you’re nothing more than a commodity, and that’s a very unattractive position to be in.  As a commodity you don’t build a relationship.  You don’t build loyalty, and you don’t build a business that will enhance your personal wealth. 

Imagine a future where you can easily meet with qualified prospects who want to know about how you can help them.  Imagine a future where you’re not only helping your clients to build their future, but you’re building your own too.  You can have that future, but you’ll need to make a few changes in your approach. 

December 2007

I Don't Want to be a Salesperson!

Do you cringe when you even hear the word "salesperson"?  Do you think sales people have to be pushy, self-centered, and obnoxious to be effective?  You know you don’t want to act like that, but you need some business.

Have you come to the realization that if you don't learn how to sell you'll be out of business?  Most small service business owners are talented people with special skills or training that they’ve worked hard to obtain.  Perhaps you used those talents as an employee, and decided it was time to go out on your own so you went into business for yourself.  Or maybe you’ve just gotten your shiny new degree and now you need to pay back all those college loans.  You may have thought all you needed to do was hang your shingle and the work would come in.  But now you know better.  

It may really rub your ego raw to think that you have to sell yourself, but you’ve come to terms with the fact that if you don’t you won’t be in business long.  You have to learn how to sell, but you just can’t bring yourself to use the stupid opening lines sales people have used with you.  Or the high-pressure closing tactics you’ve been on the receiving end of.  The good news is you don’t want to, and you don’t have to.  In fact, you never want to use the approach that you probably associate with the sales techniques used by poor sales people.      

Caught up in your strong aversion to sales you’ve overlooked the fact that there’s a vast difference between “salespeople” and “sales professionals”.  Instead of focusing on what you don’t like about those with poor sales skills why not learn how to sell like a top sales professional?  Effective sales training helps you to treat others with the respect and dignity they deserve so you get the sales you need, and your customers get the service they want.  A sales professional understands that sales success comes from starting a relationship on the right foot so it can develop over time into a long-term relationship. 

Learn how to position yourself so you attract the positive attention of your ideal prospects, and then help them to make a buying decision.  You’re already really good at helping people, aren’t you?  And I’ll bet you know how and where to find your ideal prospects if you do a little thinking.  So, now all you need to do is learn how to sell by helping people buy. 

Instead of trying to coerce people even the wrong people to buy, you’re really trying to exclude the wrong people quickly so you can get to the right people.  When you were a little kid weren’t you able to get your parents to do what you wanted?  Haven’t you ever sold a peer or leader on your idea?  See you probably know a lot more about sales than you think.  But just to get your confidence up and to get a feel for where you could make some improvements you might want to see how you measure up against top producers who’ve perfected the skills they’ve learned through their professional sales training and experience.

Do your sales skills measure up?  Visit:

http://Omaha-Business-Coach.com/OmahaSales.html

To contact business coach Cheryl A. Clausen ~ email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com

November 2007

Top Producers have a Daily Sales Plan, Do You?

It’s the sum of all the little things that differentiates the top producers from the rest.  It doesn’t matter what business you’re in you can’t expect to succeed without a plan.  And you can’t expect to succeed unless you implement that plan through the actions you take.

Perhaps your daily sales plan functions a little differently than those at the top.  Your daily sales plan isn’t just showing up for work each day making calls, and setting and holding appointments.  That’s what I call “hopium”.  Because you’re hoping that by just showing up and going through the motions of sales that something good will, happen like some sales.  You know hoping something will happen isn’t going to make it actually happen, so how about trying a better plan?     

You may not wake up each morning all motivated and eager to hop out of bed and take on the world.  In fact, based on your previous day you may be thinking it would be just as productive for you to stay home in bed as getting up and repeating yesterday.  A plan helps you to get good results even when your motivation is still home in bed because it forces you to take action to implement your plan.  You have to take the necessary actions to carry it out each and every day whether you feel like it or not.  As you consistently carry out your plan you’re motivation increases because you start getting good results.      

Top producers: work on themselves, they have specific goals or targets they’re working to achieve, and they have self-motivation and self-leadership.  All that on top of their actual sales activities, it’s no wonder there are so few at the top.  Set objectives for improvement in each area on top of tracking the number of appointments you set, the number of advances in your sales funnel, the number of sales closed, and the dollars of revenue generated.    

It looks pretty formidable, but it’s really not as hard as it may seem at first glance.  Working on yourself is all about self-development and learning.  The quickest way to develop is to get help from the experts.  Look to those outside your organization who have an impartial view of you and what you are or aren’t doing.  When you set your sales goals be thinking big picture.  You make sales because you want money, you want money because you want something else.  Usually you think in terms of tangible things like a new car, a better house, or a nice vacation.  Ultimately though isn’t what you really want is the ability to spend your time the way you want?  Isn’t that the outcome of financial freedom?  So think about how your goals this day relate to what you want one day, and keep focused on doing today what you need to do to get what you want one day. 

Self-motivation and self-leadership are among the most useful tools you can have in your tool kit.  When you focus on one day at a time, and do whatever it takes to make just today a success you start seeing results.  When you’re only focused on today and you make today a success you feel really good about yourself.  Your motivation in conjunction with persistence, determination, and focus on the right things gets you doing the things you may not like or want to do; and that’s self-leadership.  All of a sudden everything begins to fall into place one day at a time.

Wonder how your sales skills measure up?

http://Omaha-Business-Coach.com/OmahaSales.html

To contact business coach Cheryl A. Clausen ~ email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com

October 2007

Which of These 10 Mistakes are Costing You Sales?

The sales training you’re getting may actually be doing little to prepare you for sales success.  Frequently your sales training provides half-solutions that make your job at least 100 times harder than it has to be.  Mainly that’s because your sales training is trying to teach you a one size fits all approach to sales that may not fit with your personal strengths and your values.  Look over this list and circle each bullet point that represents a critical mistake you’re making as a result of your training experiences:

·        You try to set appointments too early in the relationship, and you try to set appointments with the wrong people. 

·        You use a presentation during the appointment rather than having a conversation with the prospect. 

·        You’re too eager to make the sale and come across as self-centered and pushy. 

·        You talk about products/services and features because you don’t understand the benefit of what you have to offer your specific prospect. 

·        You don’t know how to ask for referrals in a way that helps people willingly give them to you. 

·        You think you can sell to everyone because everyone is a prospect for what you have. 

·        You don’t build relationships, so you’re constantly hunting for new business. 

·        There isn’t anything about you that makes people want to contact you so they don’t. 

·        You seek to persuade your prospect to buy rather than seeking to understand what your prospect wants. 

·        You’re thinking about you and your needs rather than the prospect and their wants, and overlook key opportunities to connect with them in a way that produces results. 

Your previous sales training puts you on the offensive constantly chasing prospects.  When you’re on the offensive, you’re pushing your customer into a defensive position because no one likes to be hunted.  When your prospect is on the defensive a win-win isn’t possible, but you can change that.  Position yourself as the expert partnering with them to find the solution to what they want, or helping them to remove the problem or challenge they don’t want.  This requires you to really listen to them and understand them and their wants and needs.   

The best sales training will help you to position yourself as a trusted advisor.  A trusted advisor is someone your prospect knows, likes, and trusts to help them make decisions resulting in the best outcome for them.  When you’re focused on selling a product/service so you can get a paycheck, you can’t possibly be acting as your prospect’s trusted advisor.  Your prospects read this loud and clear in your words and behaviors without anyone ever having to tell them.  This leads to suspicion and makes them question every recommendation you make.      

The best sales training will help you to see that it’s to your benefit to seek first to understand rather than trying to persuade.  Persuasion backfires on you because no one likes to be talked into or sold anything, but everyone loves to be understood.  When your prospects believe that you understand them and their needs they will trust your advice, they will do repeat business with you, and they will refer people just like them to you.  This makes the whole sales process easier and provides you with a perpetual stream of new people to talk to, who want to talk to you. 

Wonder how your sales skills measure up?

http://Omaha-Business-Coach.com/OmahaSales,html

To contact business coach Cheryl A. Clausen ~ email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com

September 2007

Using HR to Coach Your Employees Can Lead to Big Problems

HR is already on the payroll so you might as well use them to coach your employees, right?  Wrong.  HR may already be on your payroll, but that doesn’t mean they have the skills or are in a position to coach your employees.  There are a number of reasons you may want coaching for an employee, such as: a sudden change in their attitude, poor management skills, poor communication skills, not working to their potential, low productivity, or to groom them for advanced responsibilities.   

HR is supposed to know how to deal with challenging employees.  They are supposed to guide you through corrective actions and performance appraisals, right?  Maybe, they certainly are the experts to turn to if you have any legal questions or concerns; but if you want corrective actions and performance appraisals to result in measurable positive growth, HR may not be the first place to look.  HR professionals provide a valuable and much needed skill set in the work environment, but it isn’t in your best interest or their’s to expect them to venture into areas outside their expertise.

By definition coaching is a highly tuned process of communication and problem solving based on a mutually voluntary relationship between the coach and the person being coached.  It is a co-creative process focused entirely on the interests, challenges and goals of the person being coached.  When HR is placed in the role of coach they have some degree of power, authority, accountability, and/or responsibility that prevents the relationship from being a mutually voluntary relationship.       

While HR professionals have extensive training in relation to the legal aspects of employment they have no formal training in, or true understanding of coaching.  Even if they did have the training by the very fact that both HR and the employee are employed by the same employer it places the employee in a very difficult situation.  When HR plays the role of coach both the HR professional and the employee are placed at a disadvantage that rarely works out well for either one.  It’s often a disastrous situation resulting in one or both leaving the organization.    

When an employee is asked to go to someone in HR to get coaching they feel: forced into it, like they’re in a lose-lose situation, resentful, guarded, and they have no motivation to make real changes they’re just motivated to cover up their real feelings and concerns.  The employee feels like they’re being punished by the teacher.  Plus the teacher has the ability to tattle on them when they least expect it to their direct report.  The employee will dutifully oblige and “play” along, but their main objective is to get themselves out of this situation as soon as possible.  The employee won’t make any real changes; they just learn to mask their thoughts and feeling so they don’t get in trouble again. 

Rather that using coaching as a punishment world-class organizations use it as a reward.  Coaching can help your employees to increase their performance and develop in a way that ultimately benefits both the employee and the organization.  These employees continue to exceed their current potential and develop farther and faster than their non-coached counterparts. 

If you value your employees and you really want them to have an opportunity to reach their potential get an outside coach to work with them.  Don’t make HR out to be the bad guys and place both HR and the employee in a lose-lose situation.  Coaching is never a “fix” for someone who’s broken; it’s a power booster helping the person being coached to make huge strides in their growth and development. 

Struggling with productivity?  Visit:  http://coachingmegaagents.com/TimeManagement.php

identify your opportunities for improvement by taking this complimentary Time Management Analysis.  To contact business coach Cheryl A. Clausen ~ email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com

August 2007

If you’re like most people, you think the way you think is the only way to think.  Very few people realize that we don’t all think about and value time in the same way.  That can lead to unnecessary stress and conflict in the work environment. 

One of the other people you work with is Susan.  Susan is a charmer very friendly and popular.  She thinks it’s much more important to talk to other people than it is to finish a particular project.  She has a tendency to put things off until the last minute and has a messy work environment, but she usually meets her deadlines – just barely.   

 July 2007

 Top Eleven Reasons You Mis-manage Your Time

How many times a day do you catch yourself saying that you don’t have time?  How many times a day do you tell yourself that you have to hurry up?  How many times do you tell your friends and family that you don’t have time for them? 
There are 11 reasons you allow yourself to get off track and mis-manage your time.  Poor time management leads to an ongoing time deficit where you never have enough time to do the things that are really important to you.  Until you recognize how these excuses are impacting you and make a commitment to yourself to change your attitudes and behaviors in relation to time; you will continue to be stressed out and feel overworked and overwhelmed. 
If you allow your poor time management to continue your relationships with your friends and family will become strained.  This ongoing additional stress that comes from never getting what you need to get done completed and the guilt and pressure that comes from never really giving your friends and family the attention they deserve will affect your ability to properly run your business.  This is especially true if you’re an independent service professional.  There is just never enough of you to go around.  Let’s look at the excuses that could be getting in your way.   
Here are the 11 reasons (not listed in order of priority) you never have enough time because you’re mis-managing your time:
Reason #1 – You don’t have a clear plan for what you are trying to accomplish so you allow other people to dictate how you use your time.
Reason #2 – You don’t really know how you are spending your time now.  You allow time to slip away and at the end of the day you wonder where the time went.  Plus you never plan your time for how you want to spend it and then stick to your plan. 
Reason #3 – You think time is free so you give it freely and don’t recognize that time is an extremely valuable resource that can’t be replenished.
Reason #4 – You don’t realize how important it is to control and guard your productive time plus you have unrealistic expectations for what is possible. 
Reason #5 – You aren’t punctual.  When you aren’t punctual is like sliding down a greased slide impacting you in countless ways none of which are good. 
Reason #6 – You procrastinate because you lack self-discipline.
Reason #7 – You don’t make and use lists.
Reason #8 – You don’t have a plan for how to use odd lot times.
Reason #9 – You allow others to control your communication and create nonsensical time interruptions.
Reason #10 – You are reluctant to delegate.
Reason #11 – You don’t realize the impact lack of organization is having on your ability to productively use your time. 
How many hit home for you?  You don’t have to be time strapped.  Everyone has the same 168 hours in a given week and how you use those hours is your choice.  When you choose not to make a choice you are really making a choice to allow other people and other factors to control your time.  Those who use their time wisely have time for work and free time to spend as they like.  So, what are you going to do to stop mis-managing your time? 
To contact business coach Cheryl A. Clausen ~ call 402-926-1134, email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com Ever wondered if coaching would work for you? Visit  http://coachingmegaagents.com/TrialMembership.php 
    

Customer Loyalty Begins Internally

Jeffrey Gitomer tells us that customer satisfaction is worthless and research supports his position.  A satisfied customer is just as happy to do business with your competition as they are to do business with you.  They don’t find anything special about your business and have no loyalty to you.  Loyal customers, on the other hand, will go out of their way to do business with you because of the relationship they have with your business.

Why is customer loyalty so important?  Financially, loyal customers have a huge impact on your profitability.  You will spend 5 times more to attract new customers than it costs you to retain existing customers, plus loyal customers can increase your profits by as much as 85% according to a report in the Harvard Business Review.  The creation of customer loyalty is just as important to your overall business health as any part of your production process. 

There is no question about the importance of creating customer loyalty for your businesses profitability and sustainability.  The question is, “how do you create that kind of loyalty among your customers”?  You want to create the level of loyalty among your customers that leads to repeat business from them even when there are other choices.  You also want lots of referrals because your customers view you as the superior option among all the choices out there. 

You may be surprised to learn the answer to creating customer loyalty is within your employees not a particular affinity program.  Customer loyalty begins in your organization with the level of customer loyalty generated by your internal customers, your employees.  When your employees aren’t treated well by the company and/or each other it is inevitable that their frustration and stress will be taken out on both your internal customers (their coworkers) and your external customers (the ones that write your paychecks).

You may already have “customer service” training in your organization but if you have: high employee turnover, a low level of repeat business, and a low number of referrals…your current “training” may not be meeting your needs.  Frequently the only people to receive “customer service” training are your customer service representatives.  Isn’t that enough?  No. 

Everyone who works in your business from top management to the newest lowest level employee has an internal customer.  That internal customer is a fellow employee at their same level, an employee from a different department, the person they report to, and any other person employed by your organization. The way these relationships and problems are handled will determine your ability to develop a true customer loyalty program. 

The creation of customer loyalty can be an inexpensive way to develop a competitive advantage while improving organizational productivity and lowering costs.  How can the development of customer loyalty lead to all these benefits?  When you start with an inside out approach to customer loyalty and develop customer loyalty from your internal customers your employees are much more aware of their impact on others, and are much more committed to making a difference themselves that benefits both their fellow employees and the organization. 

Everyone in your organization has the power within themselves to take steps to create customer loyalty with both your internal and external customers.  It’s truly the little things you do that make the biggest impact on your customers.  When each employee understands the importance and power of creating a point of connection with your customers both internal and external, and establishes goals for personally creating those points of connection you will be able to move your customer satisfaction program to a customer loyalty program with measurable improvements related to repeat business, increased productivity, and lowered costs.           

Contact coach Cheryl Clausen ~ call 402-926-1134 or

email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com ,or visit www.CoachingMegaAgents.com  

May 2007

Is Your Business Failing Because Your Employees Aren’t Working?

The larger your organization the more confident I am that this is true.  Very large organizations are literally warehouses filled with employees that aren’t working.  The employees think they are working but by definition they aren’t and it isn’t necessarily their fault.  In all likelihood fully 80% of your employees aren’t working at any given time.  
First, let’s have an agreed upon definition for work.  Work is:
The performance of people or task related activities that directly result in a product or service your customer is willing to pay for.
The performance of an agreed upon set of activities that produce consistent results that add value to the product or service you are selling.
The performance of absolutely necessary and sufficient activities to produce consistent and predictable results.
If we know what work is we also need to define what work is not, work is not -  
Acting as a place holder and collecting a paycheck.
Creating problems with processes or people that require fixing.
Grudgingly responding to customers needs as though they are an annoying interruption keeping the employee away from their important work.
The performance of superfluous activities that don’t directly benefit the customer and that the customer is not willing to pay for.
If your employees aren’t working whose fault is it?  It’s your fault if you are the owner or number one decision maker in your organization because -
As the leader in your organization you are ultimately responsible for obtaining results through other people.
You haven’t clearly set the objectives and expectations within your organization.
You don’t clearly communicate your expectations and objectives.
You allow employees to act like unproductive place holders within your organization creating more problems than they solve because you don’t set clear expectations and you don’t hold employees accountable.  Accountability begins with you.
You give employees raises and bonuses for acting like place holders.
You don’t develop and prepare employees for promotion.
You don’t support those employees that try to act like leaders because you undermine their efforts to hold others accountable for their actions.
You aren’t a good leader yourself and you can’t expect your employees to be good leaders.
So how do you fix it?  There are a number of actions to take.  None insurmountable and all necessary to develop an organization that works.
Develop and implement a strategic plan for the organization that clearly identifies your objectives down to the level of who does what by when.
Set defined standards for performance and results based on your strategic plan and hold everyone accountable. 
When expectations are not met don’t ignore the problem thinking it will go away but rather take immediate corrective action.
Realize that corrective action is not punishment but rather a mutual and agreed upon plan for correcting what’s not working and discovering how to make it work.
Communicate, communicate, communicate and that doesn’t mean just talking it means listening and responding to what you hear.
Only reward employees for performance.  Just showing up doesn’t merit a reward it merits that your employee gets to keep their job, if and only if they are showing up and meeting expectations.  Rewards are earned by exceeding expectations.
Prepare employees to become leaders by providing them with the developmental training they need to effectively obtain results through other people.
Contact coach Cheryl Clausen ~ call 402-926-1134,email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com ,
or visit www.CoachingMegaAgents.com  

April 2007

Business Owners: Are You Struggling to Tame the Monster?

Are you overworked; stressed-out, maybe even burned out running your business?  Does it seem like you spend everyday all day fighting fires?  At the end of the day; do you wonder where the day went, and why you didn’t get any of the important things you planned to do that day done?

As your business has grown do you feel like the business is running you and your life rather than you running the business?  This is a common experience among business owners.  When you first start out you are just so grateful for every dollar you can deposit in the bank.  You don’t have a lot of systems and processes for handling business so you just make it up as you go along.  When things don’t work quite the way you’ve planned you readjust and keep moving forward.

Are you ready to make changes?  Are you ready to proactively run your business rather than reactively responding and letting the business run you?  Recognition of the problems you don’t want and a willingness to try different approaches to get what you do want is a first step. 

How do you move from reactively allowing the business to run you to proactively running the business?  First, you need to have a clear picture of where you are now in all areas of your business.  Frequently you are just so busy letting things happen that you really don’t even realize what is happening until you make the conscious decision to stop and analyze what is really going on? 

Have you ever experienced a time when you thought you had things clear in your mind about how to do something, and then proceeded without putting those thoughts to paper?  Did you find that things didn’t work out like you “thought” they would?  Well that’s exactly what happens when you try to run your business without taking the time to put your plans to paper.  Having a written strategic plan for running your business will help you to prevent problems before they happen and result in fewer fires to fight.    

Have you ever spent your precious resources (time, dollars, manpower, etc.) only to realize later that what seemed like a good investment at the time really wasn’t?  That happens when you don’t have a clear plan defining your top objectives.  When you haven’t taken the time to plan what you really want from your business, what’s most important, and how you are going to get there; it’s almost impossible to make really good decisions.   

Many business owners have a business plan they developed to take to the bank to get a loan.  A business plan is not the same thing as a strategic plan.  A business plan is typically focused on financial statements and projections.  A strategic plan is focused on helping you to clearly define where you are going and how you are going to get there.  Your strategic plan results in a dashboard.  Your dashboard spells out exactly who does what by when, so you can track and measure your progress.  This prevents your most important objectives from getting set aside and forgotten. 

Take control of your business and stop letting the monster control you by developing your own strategic plan for your business.  When you do you will be able to focus on what’s important rather than what’s urgent, and you will be able to run your business rather than having the business run you.  Doing so will make business ownership a more enjoyable experience and provide you the free time you thought you’d have as a business owner. 

Have a question you’d like to ask the coach?  Email your question to Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com  I’ll answer questions in future columns.

To contact coach Cheryl Clausen ~ call 402-926-1134, email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com ,or visit on the web at www.CoachingMegaAgents.com  

March 2007

How do your management skills measure up?

As a manager you are pretty good at putting others to the test and letting them know how they measure up.  The better question may be, how well do you measure up?  If you find a few shortcomings on your part, what will you do to improve? 
You may be the envy of others in your industry when it comes to your job or technical knowledge.  When you speak others may listen for your technical expertise.  Yet, aren’t you really getting paid to achieve results through other people?  As you achieve greater responsibilities in the organization aren’t your people skills, your ability to achieve results through others the skills that are needed to be a true leader?  Let’s look a little closer at how you measure up.
Managers have three key responsibilities: you must lead your employees toward the fulfillment of the organization’s vision, you must teach your employees the job or technical skills needed to achieve results efficiently and effectively, and you must coach your employees to grow and achieve new successes.  Employees love to be led, taught, and coached.  They absolutely hate to be managed.  Use your management skills on yourself, machines, and processes; not your employees.  Answer the following questions, with brutal honesty. 
Are your employees so unhappy with you or their work environment that they are looking other opportunities?
Do you think employees are easily replaceable or do you recognize that employees are your most important assets?
What is your turnover rate and what does that cost in terms of lost sales, lost opportunities, and lost customers?
What does it cost you to replace an employee; to locate, hire, and train another person?
Now rate yourself from 1 (an absolutely lousy boss) to 10 (a model for others to emulate when it comes to your people/behavioral skills) on the frequency with which you:
Hire smart people with great attitudes.  Attitude is a key determinant for potential success.
Teach them the hard skills they need to fulfill the requirements of the job efficiently and effectively.
Help them to develop the soft skills they need to really grow, develop, and succeed.
Help them to understand their role in the fulfillment of the organization’s goals, and in the development of loyal customers.
Train them to be your replacement.  The sooner you have a proven track record for developing exceptional people the sooner you will be moving up yourself.  Now that’s thought provoking, isn’t it? 
Strive to be your best by working on your own personal development.
Well, how did you rate yourself?  Did you find that you have room for improvement?  If so, here are some areas to work on: 
Understanding that leadership is all about results but not results at the expense of people.
Building cohesive work teams.
Creating a work environment that attracts workers rather than driving them away.
Involving your employees in problem solving and gaining a committed workforce that holds themselves accountable for results.
Establishing expectations and working with employees when those expectations aren’t met.
Encouraging employee development so that as your employee’s grow the organization will get better results; including higher levels of productivity and increased profits.
Perhaps the most important way you can improve yourself is to accept and benefit from change, and viewing every challenge as an opportunity.   
To contact business coach Cheryl Clausen ~ call 402-926-1134, email Cheryl@CoachingMegaAgents.com ,or visit on the web at www.CoachingMegaAgents.com  

February 2007

How to manage change and the resulting conflict

Organizational change is an on-going mandatory prerequisite for long-term success.  Many organizations begin change initiatives only to have them fail at some point before implementation and completion.  Sometimes this happens so often that employees begin to doubt the sincerity of any and all organizational change initiatives.  The inability to effect change is often attributable to employee’s being too close to the situation and having their egos tied to a particular outcome.  In addition, employees aren’t empowered to make decisions and take action so eventually everything bogs down and comes to a grinding halt.
So how can we make changes?  To effectively manage change and reduce chaos a clear vision and well defined goals must be developed.  A clear vision that is both inspiring and motivating must come from the top.  Employees need to buy into the vision and develop a sense of ownership for the accomplishment of the vision.  Every employee must set clear and measurable goals that are connected to the accomplishment of the organization’s critical goal categories. 
How can an outsider help?  Frequently an outside business coach can do what managers can’t, help employees to become self-directed self-motivated individuals that act as leaders no matter their position in the organization.  A coach’s effectiveness comes in part from their non-judgmental ability to listen to and focus on the individual’s needs while working with the individual to fulfill both their personal and professional objectives.  This frees up executives and management to focus on the actual implementation work to be done rather than dealing with employee resistance and objections to change.      
What role does learning play in managing change?  Learning occurs at four levels: individual, group, organizational, and inter-organizational.  At the individual level executives must provide the opportunity for employees to assume responsibility for their decisions in order for them to learn from their experiences. Group learning is aided by the formation of self-managed or cross-functional teams.  Management teams, more often than not; work against each other because they lack leadership skills, communication skills, and a full understanding of how their decisions impact other departments and teams. 
This place is like a hot bed, wouldn’t it just be better to let this initiative go and have things cool off?  It is through conflict or internal tension that transformational changes are achieved.  When faced with these internal tensions or conflict, individuals will respond in an emotional manner.  The individual may feel embarrassed by the sudden realization of the need for transformational change and want to explain away or defensively hold on to the source of this tension.  This is the time to help the individual to work through their tension and overcome the source of the tension.  Managers usually have no clue how to effectively deal with these tensions, whereas dealing with this kind of tension is exactly what a business coach is hoping for to make the greatest gains in change effectiveness.  Having management fight through these tensions isn’t the best use of anyone’s time and doesn’t move implementation forward. 
Wouldn’t it be better to avoid this conflict?  Change and conflict are to be expected within organizations.  Helping individuals learn how to benefit from these changes is a critical element in effective change management.  Organizations that are able to effectively initiate changes and overcome the resulting conflict are well on their way toward the achievement of performance excellence.       
To contact business coach Cheryl Clausen ~ call 402-926-1134, email Cheryl@coachingmegaagents.com ,or visit on the web at www.coachingmegaagents.com  

January 2007

Is Toxic Management Syndrome Cutting Into Your Profits, Costing You Quality Employees, and Leading to Low Productivity?

What is toxic management syndrome? Toxic management syndrome is a chronic condition that develops over time when poor management skills result in decreased employee productivity, increased employee turnover, low morale, and traumatized employees enrolled in your EAP (employee assistance program).  The symptoms are easy to spot, but the cure isn’t a quick easy fix.  Frequently when a company realizes that they have a toxic manager within their midst the solution is to terminate the manager.  This leads to a honey moon phase where people are so relieved to see the manager go that they think they will live happily ever after.  Yet, this is never the case because once the honey moon wears off another manager will step into the role of the toxic manager.  The problem begins all over again because the underlying cause that allowed the old manager to develop into a toxic manager was never addressed.   
How do you put an end to toxic management syndrome?  The first step is to identify the elements in your organization’s culture that allow the poor behaviors exhibited by toxic managers: micro-management, belligerence, poor communication skills, poor self-leadership skills etc.  The next step is to identify a way to develop the desired skills and implement the use of those skills throughout your management and supervisory staff.  On-the-job training where one worker trains other workers is not the way to go here and neither are seminars or quick fix training programs.  We didn’t learn our habits over night and we don’t change them over night either.  A better approach is to utilize an outside business coach who can work with your staff both as a group and as individuals helping establish acceptable work behaviors and individual plans for overcoming personal obstacles.  Once the desired behaviors have been establish the final step is to demand compliance and develop plans for immediate corrective action when/if the acceptable behaviors are not followed. 
Don’t just accept unacceptable behaviors and performance from your management/supervisory staff.  I have worked with companies that have decreased employee turnover from 35% down to 5%.  Find out why employees are using your EAP program, you may be shocked to learn that a significant percentage of the employees using the program are doing so because of the stress they suffer at the hands of toxic managers.  Eliminating toxic manager syndrome is an immediately actionable way to reduce and/or eliminate these unnecessary costs.  The added benefit is that once your managers learn how to obtain results through other people your employee’s productivity will go up. 
Why don’t organizations take action immediately when they see a toxic manager developing?  There are a number of reasons a toxic manager’s behavior gets ignored including: the toxic manager may just be emulating the highest ranking official in the company, this manager may have specific skills and knowledge that are difficult to replace and the organization fears the manager will leave if confronted by their behavior, a lack of awareness of the gravity of the impact on other employees, and it is always easier to ignore a situation in the hopes it will resolve itself than to face the problem head on.   In addition to these reasons another reason is that often no one in the organization really knows what to do or how to deal with the manager.  These are all real obstacles that need to be addressed and overcome not only for the internal health of the organization but also from the standpoint of the legal risk the organization is assuming.  If your organization is suffering from toxic management syndrome start today developing your plan for curing the syndrome and putting your organization well on the way toward the achievement of performance excellence.   
To contact Coach Cheryl Clausen, call 402-926-1134, or email Cheryl at  measuredsuccess@frontiernet.net, or visit Cheryl on the web at www.measuredsuccessinc.com 

December 2006

Business Professionals that Follow These Planning Tips Get Better Results

2007 is literally a few days away.  As you look back, how was your 2006?  Did you hit your targets and follow your plans?  Did you have your own plan or did you just follow someone else’s plan?  A well laid plan helps you to develop a focus and direction for your business that enables you to make better decisions and work smarter rather than harder.   
Frequently business professionals don’t make plans, only to be disappointed by their accomplishments when they reflect on the past year.  It’s easy to take each day as it comes and allow life (business) to happen.  That’s the path of least resistance.  While that plan is easy and comfortable it never gets different results.  To get different and better results you must make a commitment to doing at least some things differently. That means you need to choose how you want your professional and personal life to be and develop a plan for getting it! 
Typically people are only willing to make changes and develop plans when their discomfort with their current circumstances is greater than their comfort with the status quo.  The down side to this lack of planning though is that you never even consider let alone realize what you are missing out on.  You aren’t thinking about how good things could be only how they are.  Taking the time to consider how you would like things to be and the benefits you would obtain if they were that way is the first step in the planning process that will help you to muster the motivation you need to get out of your rut and become a mover and shaker rather than a person who watches life pass them by.  The best way to plan your future is to create it.  You create your future by having a clear picture of what you want along with a well defined plan including specific details for how you are going to get there. 
There are many business professionals that conceptually understand the importance of planning and have even tried it on their own only to have minimal results as they really don’t know how to do it well.  This was the case for a local business owner who sought the help of an outside professional.  An outside professional has experience not only in the planning process, but in working with businesses and business professionals helping them with the planning process.  They are able to look at your business or profession with you with an outside experienced set of eyes and ears that through collaboration help you to follow an efficient and effective process to develop a great plan for your future.  After working with the outside professional this business owner was able to develop a plan that included a dashboard with critical targets that would need to be met.  The owner saw improvements immediately and to date has enjoyed more than a 200% increase in revenue over the previous year. 
As 2006 comes to a close it’s time to review what you wanted to accomplish, how close you came to those accomplishments, and what’s possible in 2007.  It begins by having a clear understanding of what you want and developing a clear plan for how to get there down to the actionable steps required.  There are a number of good books available on strategic planning, but if you are looking for better results faster with less trial and error you may want to look to an outside professional.  Those business owners and professionals that use outside professionals find they can develop a great plan with less pain on their part, and often find that they get results that surprise them.  Put together your plan for 2007 now and get yourself well on the path toward the achievement of performance excellence.   
To contact Coach Cheryl Clausen call 402-926-1134, email measuredsuccess@frontiernet.net, or visit on the web at www.measuredsuccessinc.com