Jim Collins: Good to Great in 10 Steps. Researcher and management guru Jim Collins has authored or co-authored six books, including Good to Great and Built to Last. On his web site there are 48 articles written or co-written by him. But speaking at the Womens Presidents Organization’s annual conference last week in Atlanta, Collins boiled it all down.
Do these 10 things, he said, to dramatically improve your company. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What does this have to do with entrepreneurship? 6. 7. How exactly can one practice productive paranoia? 8. 9. 10. Roaring Video | Giving Customers The Awesome Experience. Long-term growth of a customer base is dependent on giving your customers an experience that satisfies their requirements, is pleasant, and which ultimately exceeds their expectations. We define The Awesome Experience as the convergence of Need, Entertainment and The Unexpected. Achieving The Awesome Experience isn’t easy but pursuing it is certainly worthwhile. To do this consistently, companies must master three components. Establishing Compelling Messaging as taught in ROAR! Is the first step to attracting, retaining and growing your customers.
While it’s true that The Awesome Experience is near impossible to achieve in every customer encounter, without addressing and mastering Compelling Messaging, Intentional Marketing and Memorable Delivery in your customer experience process it will almost never occur. ***Want more of The Awesome Experience? Your Desk Is Making You Stupid. Your desk, scientists reported recently, is trying to kill you. According to the New York Times, scientists discovered that when we sit all day, "electrical activity in the muscles drops… leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects," and sadly even getting regular doses of exercise doesn't offset the damage. But now there's new evidence of the harm of sitting. Not only is it making you fatter, it might also be making you dumber. Sabine Schaefer, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany, recently looked at the effect of walking on working memory. Your mother may have warned you not to walk and chew gum at the same time, but when Schaefer compared the performance of both children and young adults on a standard test of working memory when they were sitting with when they were walking, her results contradicted mom's advice.
The British Psychological Society's Research Digest sums up the research results: How to Boost Creativity & Innovation in 10 Minutes. Trying to be innovative feels, at least for most people, nearly impossible. Don't believe me? Try it. Go ahead. Be innovative. Give up? Our employees don't either. Kill a Stupid Rule is one of the tools described by Lisa Bodell, the founder and CEO of futurethink and the author of Kill the Company. Playing Kill a Stupid Rule is not only easy, your employees will think it's a hoot. 1. Then break them down into two-or three-person teams. 2.
"If you could kill or change all the stupid rules that get in the way of better serving our customers or just doing your job, what would they be and how would you do it? " 3. And make sure your skin is particularly thick that day, because many of the stupid rules employees will want to kill are your stupid rules. "At the 10-minute mark the teams will be begging you for more time," Lisa says, "not because they're coming up empty but because 10 minutes isn't nearly enough time to write everything down. 4. 5. 6. Prove you're willing to listen. 7. No problem. 5 Ways to Make Your Own Happiness | Inc. 5000.
Another Independence Day has come and gone. Now the topic of freedom is mostly left to a barrage of political commercials designed to convince you that your freedom is at risk. Truthfully, neither major party is about to wipe out all the freedom this country provides. But real freedom comes only to those willing to break out from conventional thought and propaganda. On a personal level, I got married this week, which makes freedom a very relevant topic.
In that spirit, I am identifying five freedoms you need to be successful in business and in life, as well as ways to achieve them. 1. Cynicism and age seem to go together. Path to Freedom: Make humor a priority. 2. There is nothing wrong with collecting toys: houses, cars, boats, etc., but these things have a way of owning us, particularly when we finance them. Path to Freedom: Make a list of the material needs that truly matter if you were to start over tomorrow. 3. Inertia is a powerful oppressor. 4. 5. Don't Take Business Advice from Nice People | Inc. 5000. I’ll admit it. I'm not a particularly nice person. In fact some consider me brutal with my honesty. (Some just call me a New Yorker.) Either way they’re right. I don’t coddle. I don’t insult, but I call it like I see it and often I offend. A colleague of mine claims one can offer blatant truth, and still be nice.
The alternative to us truth-sayers is people with discretion. These nice people are not doing you any favors. 1. This happens in sales all the time. 2. Most people ask for opinions in hopes they are on the right path with a project. 3. When an achiever is passionately driving down a fatal path, nice people tend to clear out of the way. I’m not suggesting we round up all the nice people and ship them to parts unknown. 1. State clearly you do not want to be treated by nice people the way they want to be treated. 2. It doesn’t matter if you are an entrepreneur, manager or employee. 3. Most nice people can’t help themselves. 7 Tips for Creating Your Own Destiny | Inc. 5000. Too many people whine about not having the life they want. The main reason people fall short of their own expectations is the same reason most companies fail to achieve their objectives: poor planning and execution. In fact, I am amazed at how many successful executives create strategy for their business, leaving their life to chance.
Often it's more comfortable (note I didn't say easier) to complain and blame outside factors for lack of accomplishment or unhappiness than to take time to work on life rather than in it. I choose otherwise. A close entrepreneur friend, J, and I are taking our annual four days away to determine our futures and hold each other accountable. Here are the tips that will assure us of success. 1. As Lewis Carroll said: If you don't know where you are going, then any road will get you there. 2.
Neither of us will be playing for the NBA at our age (or my height). 3. We're defining who we want to be at 60, not what we want to be doing. 4. 5. 6. 7. The Talent Code. How to Improve Any Skill: 4 Tips. Picture someone you know who is incredibly talented: an athlete, a musician, a scientist. You probably wish you had been born with some type of gift, right? You were. "We are often taught that talent begins with genetic gifts--that the talented are able to effortlessly perform feats the rest of us can only dream about. This is false. "I could be them. " That's the introduction to Daniel Coyle's The Little Book of Talent, a cool book filled with 52 easy, proven methods to improve almost any skill.
Here's an example. R: Reaching and Repeating E: Engagement P: Purposefulness S: Strong, Speedy Feedback Let's take a brief look at each. Reaching and Repeating: Practice should require you to operate at the edge of your abilities; in short, you have to consistently reach and constantly repeat. Say you're leading a training session. 1. 2. The second is the best approach, because everyone has to reach, every time--even if he or she isn't called on. 1. 2. 1. 2. Say you're studying for a certification exam. Cold Calling Script: Make a Call That Works. This is part of a package on cold calling. Read the next post: Why Your Cold Calls Aren't Working. While there are other (and usually more effective) ways to generate sales leads, many companies still depend on cold calling. I've covered cold calls before, but here's a great cold-calling script from one of the world's top experts on cold calling, Keith Rosen, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cold Calling.
This script was created by a cost-reduction company for use with C-level executives and can easily be adapted to virtually any product or service. By the way, the most important part of this post is the final word of warning--so be sure to read all the way to the bottom. Here's the script, with explanations of each element: Hi, John. Identify yourself immediately, or the contact will hang up on you. Did I catch you at an OK time?
This question demonstrates respect for the person's time and an understanding that your phone call is not the only thing on his or her plate for the day. Cold Calls: 16 Ways to Start a Sales Conversation. The purpose of a cold call is to have a conversation to determine whether a potential customer has the following two things: a need your offering can satisfy, andthe money to purchase it. That conversation can happen, though, only if you get through the customer's natural reluctance to speak with a stranger. The easiest way to get through that reluctance is to have a reason you're calling, other than just the fact that you have something to sell. For example, suppose you're selling an inventory control system. Here are two possible ways to begin the conversation: "I'm calling because I'm selling a great inventory control system that can save you money.
"" The second example is more likely to result in a conversation because it relates what you're selling to what's called a trigger event, a change in the way that a potential customer operates its business. The following trigger events are all excellent conversation starters: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Managing People: What the Best Leaders Do. I was struggling to engage the audience. Okay, be honest, I tried not to let it show but I was dying onstage. Maybe I was having an off day. Maybe they were having an off day. Or maybe the fact every one of the 100 people in attendance was a CEO, an executive, or the owner of a medium to large business meant they were way more accustomed to being listened to than they were to listening.
So I took a different approach. Throwaway question? That was the point. They would sit and stare and then I would supply an intentionally against-the-grain answer sure to spark some heat and conversation. So I asked the question and then paused to read the room. I was about to speak when a voice broke the silence. "I think I know," a man sitting in the back corner said, somewhat hesitantly. A few heads turned in his direction. Mine did too, because I was a little surprised and a lot concerned. Wait--what? "Can you repeat that? " A number of heads slowly turned in his direction. I stared. Best answer ever. Sales Tips: 2 Little Words to Close Deals Faster. If you knew two little words that could improve your sales, you’d use them, wouldn’t you? When you see your customer has some reservations, it makes sense to get the issues out in the open, doesn’t it?
And after the ink is dry on the deal, you should make every effort to make sure your customer is satisfied, shouldn’t you? So why all the questions? They illustrate a simple technique--sales tie-downs--that can help you improve your sales process. Sales tie-downs are short questions you add to statements throughout your presentation to get your prospective customer to start saying yes long before you go for the close. Too often, sales reps simply regurgitate their presentations and expect to land the sale. You know what I mean? These questions can be as simple as: Aren’t they? Tie-downs have to become a natural part of your conversation before you can use them in your sales presentations. You don’t need a big close, as many sales reps believe. Entrepreneurs: 5 Things to Un-Learn From School. You spent a lot of years in school.
You learned a lot. Some of what you learned you need to un-learn as soon as possible. Here are five key attitudes you should adopt instead: 1. If you only do what you're told, you'll excel. I know. School was hard. But not that hard. If you did what you were told--go to class, do the reading, turn in assignments on time, etc. Now--whether you work for someone else or run your own business--doing what you're told makes you average. To be above average, or to achieve better than average results, you must do two things: Do what others are willing to do, and do it better, andDo what others aren't willing to do Otherwise, you're just average. 2.
Sure, you felt overly-controlled in school: Dates, timelines, rules... not to mention the seemingly arbitrary policies and nonsensical assignments. Nope. In school you paid people to criticize, direct, and at times micro-manage you. No one wants to micro-manage you. 3. Otherwise you're not living–you're just working. 4. 5. The Best Way to Make a Decision.
Fortunately Derek Sivers stepped in and saved me. (Well, not literally.) A very nice lady had asked me to speak at a local business function. I was flattered and it sounded like fun... but I already have plenty to do, and the audience, while large, isn't in the market for a ghostwriter. So I was on the fence until I remembered Derek's credo: "No more yes. Since agreeing to speak would have fallen solidly into the, "Oh, okay, I guess so... " category, I turned down the opportunity. And I was immediately glad I did. The key to using the Hell Yeah! You. Sure, seeking input is natural. The problem is the main power wielded by group thinking is the power of the middle ground. ...and similar. If you want to be different and achieve "different," the only person that matters is you. When you make the decision it's all on you: Your vision, your passion, your motivation, your sense of responsibility.
You will persevere, if only to prove yourself right. But, of course, it's not. 3 Interview Questions You Must Ask.