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Commit to Progress and Start Now!

November 6, 2013 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

Photo by JakeandLindsay @ Flickr
It’s that time of year again. Mother Nature is acting strangely, the holidays are just around the corner, and the end of the year is creeping up on us. This is the time of year that many businesses and business owners create their forecasts and budgets for the following year. I have heard from many of you recently that it’s become extremely hard, if not impossible, to forecast in the current economic climate, so many of you are moving ahead with little to no guidance. Let me give you some. If you’re not a planner and strategist, this is one time in your life you cannot afford to roll the dice.

Between now and the end of the year, I am going to be writing primarily about strategies, goals, action plans, and execution. Now more than ever, you need a system and process around your business and personal plans. But first, I am challenging each and every one of you to take some time and evaluate where in your life and business you truly want and need to make PROGRESS, not change. You see, I believe that most change is automatic, and that progress is not! Change happens, progress takes momentum. Let’s build some!

If we are honest with ourselves, then we all should agree we have “gaps” in our business and personal lives. Think about where you currently are in your business and personal life. Then think about where you want to be in each. Are there “gaps”? Of course, there are. I have them and work with a coach to help me narrow some and close many. I’ve done so for years. Let me help you!

If you are like most, you make lists of things you “should” do. Some may call them “to do” lists and others may actually call them a plan. How many people do you know that go around saying, “I should do this, and I should do that.” Most of the lists go like this: I should develop a marketing strategy; I should take some leadership courses; I should hire more effective sales people; I should lose weight; I should exercise more; I should spend more time with loved ones; I should listen more to my employees; I should cut the fat at work; I should pay off my debts; I should eat healthier. Do any of these sound familiar? Unfortunately what most people do is create list like this and they do what I call “should all over themselves.” Let’s all stop doing that now and commit to developing and creating effective plans that include things we “must” execute on.

So here is your homework assignment, to be completed by next week. Take some time and evaluate your business and personal lives for “gaps”. Document those “gaps” and categorize them if possible. Then write out exactly where you want to be and visualize being there. Over the next month or so, we will discuss simple ways to develop strategies and action plans to get you there. We’ll talk about some common roadblocks that stop many from progressing; we’ll discuss the differences between the truly successful and the truly unsuccessful; we’ll hopefully put an end to the annual “New Year’s Resolutions” game many of us play, and, if you’re willing to work hard and commit to progress, we’ll see some great strides being made.

I understand that only a wet baby likes change. I also understand a driven adult needs to make progress!

Have a great week and PLEASE call me if I can assist you in any way.

WIN!

October 23, 2013 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

In today’s crazy and often unpredictable economy, it’s easy for us as leaders to lose track of what is most important to our business. We too often get caught up in the day-to-day clutter and distractions (email, voicemail, cell phones, etc.) that must be re-directed, re-focused, and re-oriented continually. Our employees are no exception. As a leader, you need to share your focus and vision for your business with your employees. If you ignore this critical focus, the possibility of wasting energy, time, talent and resources on trivial matters will keep them from attaining the company’s vision and its mission-critical priorities.

You probably have heard it said that managers do things right and leaders do the right things. The first statement speaks to efficiency and the latter refers to effectiveness.

It is easy to be busy but hard to work on the right things. You as a leader should focus on doing the right things – those things that matter most to the success of your department or organization. In short, to be effective, you must drive the focus of the organization. You must channel your time, talent, energy and resources into making an earnest effort to focus on the key priorities and goals of your organization.

Keep your focus by constantly asking yourself,
“What’s Important Now?” (something I call WIN).

As you formulate goals, strategies, and action plans, I strongly suggest you focus your team’s attention and concentration on these six primary areas:

1. Satisfying your customers/clients. Your team should know clearly that you expect a culture whereby your team falls in love with its customers and their wants/needs. You are in business to attract, delight, and retain customers in a profitable manner…period.

2. Becoming outcome driven; expecting results, not excuses. Develop a corporate climate that expects achievement and not just activity. Be a leader who admires thinking and planning. Be a leader who demands effectiveness and rewards it more than efficiency. It is critical you understand that one of the most important jobs you have is establishing a performance and a goal-oriented environment; then hold employees accountable to it.

3. Learning and continuous improvement.If your people and systems aren’t improving, your company won’t improve! You must champion an investment and dedication to employee learning. Commit to your employees that you want them to continually learn and improve what they do and how they do it. I’m amazed today at the number of companies that have stopped investing in the continuing education and training of their employees. Crazy!!

4. Maintaining and driving profits. Lead an offensive, not defensive strategy for success. Don’t forget profits! Remember both top line and bottom line growth. Replace high-maintenance/low revenue customers with low-maintenance/high revenue customers. Watch all your margins and try to improve them where you can. Now is not the time to reduce your value.

5. Letting them know you are in it for the long run. Don’t be short-term oriented. Make sure everyone knows you’re in it for the long run. If you have a short-term business mentality, you can’t expect employees to think the other way. Business is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself and you will cross the line ahead of the pack.

6. Having fun! Finally, focus on making your business fun. Celebrate progress and reward your employees for superior results. Make coming to work a meaningful event. If you can master this one, you’ll reduce one of the biggest expenses associated with leading a business…turnover.

If you incorporate these six critical tactics into your business plan and continually focus on “What’s Important Now”, you will consistently WIN!

So, “What’s Important Now” for you or your business and what are you doing to “WIN”? Leave me a comment below on what you are doing to WIN! Don’t be shy, I enjoy reading all the comments. Thanks and have a great week!

Evaluate Your Sales Team…Always!

October 16, 2013 By Dave Ferguson 1 Comment

Many years ago, one of my sales managers said something to me that sounded so simple, yet made so much sense. He was quoting master salesman, Arthur Motley, who coined the phrase, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.”

This makes sense if you own a company or manage a sales team, doesn’t it? What does it mean to your business if somebody isn’t selling something? When the economy was cranking along at record rates, times were good, everyone in sales was making money, bottom lines were fat, and life was great. As a matter of fact, times were so good that many companies resorted to simply hiring warm bodies rather than experienced and trained sales professionals. It is estimated that over the past 10-15 years, millions of people were given the title “salesperson”, just for showing up. Many companies needed them just to answer the phones and take orders. So how are those warm, inexperienced bodies helping that bottom line now? From what I’ve seen the last year, not so well, and we can’t blame it all on the economy, folks.

So how do we clean up this mess we’ve created? Today, I will share with you five steps of an evaluation process that has worked for me in the past and also what I’m currently spending a lot of my time doing these days with and for my clients:

1. Face Reality: What a concept, huh? You had the best excuses in the world to hire warm bodies. Don’t sweat the past – just get moving, and clean up the mess.

2. Evaluate Results: Don’t just look at past results, look at how they are doing in these times as well. Look at trends versus overall growth. If you are the owner, don’t forget to evaluate your sales management team as well. If you don’t feel you can do it, get help!

3. Check Attitudes: If a salesperson is not committed daily to a positive attitude, chances are their sales are mediocre at best. Attitude is not just a thought process; it’s a way of life. We either have it, or we don’t. If we don’t, we should not be in sales!

4. Who Sets Their Goals: If you have to set goals for them, chances are they set very few if any goals for themselves. If you have to set goals for salespeople, what’s next? Printing out directions for all their appointments, too?

5. Personality Test: Is your sales team transaction-oriented or relationship-oriented? The revenue is in the relationships, folks, so you’ll want to make sure your salespeople are good at forming and maintaining healthy business relationships. Check your retention and customer service results.

While this advice isn’t going to turn your sales department into a seasoned sales team with no weaknesses, it is certainly a good place to start the process. Remember also that I’ve only given you five steps out of many. Every sales team has its top 20%, its middle 60%, and the bottom 20%. If you’re an owner or sales manager, your job is to evaluate where each one of your salespeople fit – not once in a while, but always! If you need assistance, I recommend you find someone with the experience and objectivity to assist you in making the best evaluation possible.

If you have a comment, please leave it below. I always appreciate any feedback or comments.

Thanks, and have a great week!

Adopt These Practices to Remain a Cool Leader

October 9, 2013 By Dave Ferguson 1 Comment

There is no doubt that these are trying times for many leaders. With uncertainties all around us as business owners, executives, and managers, how we remain cool and successful amidst the madness going on is critical (not only to our business but our health as well). If you are struggling with remaining calm under pressure, cool off with some of these practices:

1. Plan Effectively: This is, without a doubt, the best way I know to reduce the level of stress we as leaders can accumulate. I recommend you set aside time to plan by the year, quarter, month, week, and day. Once you have these plans in place, make sure you are reviewing them daily, before you start your work day. Remember, I recommend planning, not over-planning. You’ll only add stress to your life if you plan for perfection. I have a great planning tool I use with all of my clients.

2. Own your Vital Few: These are the tasks that are the highest and best use of your time. These are the things you get paid to do. Everything else is clutter and stuff you shouldn’t be doing. Either lower the priority on the clutter or get rid of it through delegation or removal.

3. Find a Buddy: We all need a trusted colleague who can help us stay on course, while keeping our behaviors where we want them. While I recommend you hire a coach, when that is not possible, find someone at work who can reel you in when your behavior starts to head towards the bottom of the lake.

4. Prioritize Yourself High: If you’re not taking care of yourself, who’s going to? Schedule your exercise, sleep, and fun activities just like you would schedule an important meeting with a client. By the way, these may actually be more important than the meeting with the client. There are always more prospective clients, there is only one you!

5. Limit Your Portions: Don’t put things on your plate that you shouldn’t and learn to say “no”. As a leader, your job is not to react to the needs of others. Your job is to lead them, not do things for them. Focus on your “vital few” only.

6. Monitor Yourself: If you’re like most of us, you know when you’re showing signs of being overwhelmed. When you see or feel these signs, take a short walk or do some breathing exercises. Find out what is causing you the stress, and come up with a solution that you can implement right away to alleviate it. It may just be a matter of prioritizing what is currently on your plate.

7. Be Positive: Having a positive mindset can do wonders for your temperature. Stay cool by reading positive stuff, spending time with positive people, and having some fun. Join a fit club, go hiking, go drive a NASCAR with my friends at Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure and leave your fears and stress at the track.

Try some of these out and let me know how they work. Have a great week and I’d love to hear about how you’re keeping your cool!

7-Point Check-Up

September 25, 2013 By Dave Ferguson 3 Comments

If you care about your health, most likely you see your physician for a check-up at least once a year. As your coach (well, at least through my writings), I’d like to complete a goal check-up with you today. If you are like most business owners, you set some sort of 2013 goals for your business, either in late 2012 or in January of 2013. Unfortunately, if you are like most, you also haven’t paid attention to those goals much. I don’t write this to insult you or to make you feel bad. I write this because I care about you and the health of your business. I also know that sometimes “stuff” gets in the way of progress. So here we are in the fourth quarter of 2013. There is still time to pull those goals out of the fire if you act now.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Did you set too many and too lofty of goals?
Yes, it’s possible to set too many and too lofty goals for yourself! Some goals can take months and even years to achieve. If you have too many of these, you will probably stretch yourself too thin. Ideally, you should only have a few big lofty goals at one time. You need to ensure you have the time and energy to work on them, so don’t overdo it. A good suggestion is to have a few killer goals and half-dozen small goals.

2. Did you write the goals down?
I am amazed at the number of people I ask to show me their goals, and they can’t produce anything. Usually, they tell me the goals are in their head and they don’t need to write them down. I usually answer with some statistics that show it’s much more effective to write your goals down. Folks, write them down…on paper, in your journal, on a white board, or on your bathroom mirror…just get them down somewhere other than in your head.

3. Did you personalize your goals?
Why do you want to accomplish the goal? How will you feel when you achieve the goal? What will it mean for you to achieve your goal? If you don’t have clear answers to these questions, chances are you don’t want to achieve the goal badly enough. You won’t be able to sustain the drive to achieve the goal. You need to be clear about the significance of your goals…crystal clear!

4. Are you looking at your goals every day?
We humans can be forgetful. If you don’t physically write down and keep your goals in a place you can see them every day, chances are you’ll forget about them. “Out of sight, out of mind.” I give my clients a neat little planner they can carry in their pocket or purse wherever they go.

5. Are you adjusting your goals when necessary?
Things change, people get off track, and sometimes people set goals way above their abilities. If you are checking on your goals often enough, you can adjust and change them where necessary. It also gives you a chance to review your effort and plan. Are you really attacking the goals like you planned?

6. Are you keeping the goals to yourself?
If so, why? Are you scared to share your goals out of fear, failure and humiliation? How many times did Thomas Edison fail before he got the light bulb working? Once you have written down your goals, I highly recommend you publicize them. Yes, announce them to everyone you know – family, friends, enemies, co-workers, etc. It may make you feel a bit uncomfortable, but you know what I say about that: “To change, you have to get uncomfortable”.

7. Are you using a support network?
While they are your goals, you don’t have to be out there on an island. This is where a good coach can really assist you. Accountability and follow-up is imperative in the goal process.

If you have gotten off-track or fallen into any of the pitfalls I mentioned, it’s up to you to put yourself in the position to make sure you still achieve your goals in 2013. Don’t fall victim to these seven common mistakes. If you’re reading this column, chances are, you aren’t common.

Make 2013 an uncommonly good year! You still have time.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome to achieve a goal? Share your story or comment below. Thank you!

Commit to Progress and Start Now!

WIN!

Evaluate Your Sales Team…Always!

Adopt These Practices to Remain a Cool Leader

7-Point Check-Up

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