Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
How does coaching contribute to the success of a small business? My clients use me lots of different ways. These are three.
- Binocular vision – one eye perceives flatness, 2 eyes perspective. Particularly where one “eye” has seen it before.
- Accountability – when you and I first set out on our own, we resolved never again to report to ‘the man.” We were going to be the man! And now we have earned the right to procrastinate. Not good. Hire someone to have dreams with, make promises to, negotiate with them their right to bust your chops.
- Cheerleader and inspiration – could you use a word of honest encouragement now and again? What kind of difference would that make for you?
I’m Craig Jennings, a small business coach. I have about 25 clients I’m working with every month. Most of them are really kicking butt – the recession is real, but entrepreneurship is a winning process. And coaching really makes a difference. I have room for about 5 more clients. If you’d like to have a discussion with me, I don’t want to sell you. (You do get to buy if you want to.) 516 944-6454. Craig@craigjennings.com.
Driving With The Handbrake On
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
Entrepreneur’s Disease – Symptoms & Cures
Check-List: More than three, call the Doctor!
- I am impatient with others at least several times a week.
- I wake up at 3am to have enough time to worry about revenue.
- I have business debt which exceeds 20% of my annual revenues.
- My spouse (or employees) just don’t understand how big a job this is.
- I’m working twice as hard, making half as much.
- If I wasn’t here, this place would close in a month.
- I can’t seem to attract - or keep - the right staff.
- I’m doing tasks I don’t like and am not very good at.
- I am working more than 10 hours a day.
- The people I hire come late, leave early, and do drugs at lunch.
7 Mistakes that can hurt your business
1. Not having a vision, either for your business or yourself
2. Lack of financial management
3. Putting up with mediocrity.
4. Failing to see DELEGATION as a critical element of successful leadership
5. Failing to allocate TIME for yourself and your family, so that you can have a life beyond your business.
6. Not having a SUCCESSION PLAN or EXIT STRATEGY – and not knowing the difference.
7. Assuming that because you are good at some skill or trade, you’re automatically qualified to run a business.
Are You Ready To Kick Some Bad Business Habits?
1. You’re working too many hours: are you ready to work a whole lot less?
2. You’re ready to make a lot more profit. It’s not enough to love your business. You need to balance risk and reward.
3. You’re ready to build a team to help your business go forward, whether you’re there or not.
4. You need to fall in love with your business again - to rebuild the vision and passion you started with.
5. Your business can’t grow unless you grow. If you want what you haven’t got, you have to do what you don’t do. Get growing!
6. You need an accountability partner, someone to demand a profit, to push you past your stops, and to congratulate you on your successes.
7. You can use a coach, someone who’ll help you get where you always knew you could go.
On the next page – Two Entrepreneurs each work 10 hours a day, with totally different results!
One spends: 1 hour on “CEO Time (planning, thinking ahead, etc.)”
4 hours on Managing – telling others what to do.
5 hours on Employee work – doin’ it, doin’ it, doin’ it.”
Is this pretty normal?
The other does the reverse.
Which one are you?
How CEO’s use their time each day!
CEO 1
| % Time | Day Hours | $/hr. | Delivered Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CEO work | 10% | 1 | 300 | 300 |
| Manager work | 40% | 4 | 50 | 200 |
| Employee work | 50% | 5 | 15 | 75 |
| Total | 100% | 10 | 575 |
CEO 2
| % Time | Day Hours | $/hr. | Delivered Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CEO work | 50% | 5 | 300 | 1500 |
| Manager work | 40% | 4 | 50 | 200 |
| Employee work | 10% | 1 | 15 | 15 |
| Total | 100% | 10 | 1715 |
Annual Summary
CEO #1 = $172,500
CEO #2 = $514,500
Most all of us fail to delegate – and who will quarrel with us? Well, I will!
The fundamental cause of small business failure is not because the owner/CEO doesn’t do enough, but because he/she does too much of the wrong thing.
In our next installment, the “vision thing.”
Driving with the Handbrake on - a series of conversations with entrepreneurs
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
by Craig Jennings, Business Coach
The Texas Smoothie.
Jerry from Texas was a member of my Mastermind group. He was an internet wizard, self-employed, and described himself as “busier than a cat in a sandbox.” (Colorful Texas aphorism.)
It seemed he wasn’t getting as much accomplished as he wanted to, despite a heroic work ethic.
I asked him how much time he spent as a CEO, as A Manager, and as the Chief Employee, and he responded 10%, 40% and 50%. (I privately thought the CEO time might be close to zero.)
So we had a look at his day. Jerry arose early, hit the john, and then put 30 minutes on the treadmill. Then the kitchen, where he made Smoothies, one for him and one for his wife, who was now waking up. Then he took his Smoothie into his office, opened up his laptop, and dove in! And he was knee-deep in urgent, trivial detail from there on in.
What I hoped was to find a small but regular place in his routine for big, structural thinking, what to do next month or next year as opposed to the next minute.
My suggestion was that he turn off his computer at night, reboot it in the AM, and have a CEO moment while it booted up. If his computer was as slow as mine, that would get us 5-10 minutes of CEO time.
“NO!” Jerry was horrified. “I can’t let my computer go off-line even overnight. There’s no telling what might happen, or not happen.”
We negotiated, and here’ s what came out. When he walked into his office with the Smoothie, he would place it on the lid of the closed laptop. He would put his feet up on the desk, and while he slowly consumed the Smoothie, he’d have some leisurely CEO-time. The laptop stayed closed, and CEO time existed as long as there was some Smoothie left.
Read his testimonial. “This Mastermind group is all about accountability. Not only did we focus on action, every member of the group held each other accountable. I took action on my goals partly because I wanted to, but mostly because I owed it to my group to keep my word and be in action toward my goals.”
“The actions I chose to take were a result of a really creative conversation with Craig. The result was that I re-prioritized how my time should be spent, and that I had to allocate time every day for CEO activities. This “CEO Time” resulted in many changes in how my company runs today. The greatest advantage of “CEO Time” is that it keeps me focused on what matters most. The specifics are too many to list. My favorite thing in the world is now my “CEO Time!” This [program] helped me conquer something I’ve been procrastinating for years!”
Jerry has cleverly tricked his procrastination demon – now he gets his CEO Time with a Smoothie, before the demon is even up and around!
Next session: How to Value CEO time – especially your own.
Scamming The Coach
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
If you were going to SCAM a coach, consider that you want to take advantage of his ambition, his vanity and perhaps his greed.
You want to appear generous, and give him an opportunity to reciprocate.
You would invest some time in this, so you could set up a good take.
And that’s just exactly what Peter Kline did.
He failed to rip us off for over $25,000 only because my wife fought me tooth and nail and a banker smelt a rat and made some very determined phone calls!
Could it happen to you. Not, I hope, if you read this.
Following are some of the emails we exchanged. There were at least two every day. See how quickly you can pick up the scam. I know you’ll be quicker than I was!
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The scam started with a message from Mr. Peter Kline.“From: Peter Kline 527 Lea Bridge Road, London E10 6AJJan. 18, 2008?Tel: + 447031922882 I am Mr Peter Kline, I worked with Human Edge and our service is consultacy and management training etc. We got an approval from one of our client that we should make an arrangement for executive coaching for her senior staff on leadership skills and be able to lead their direct subordinate more effectively.?. ?We need to engage you or your establishment for the coaching of this personal in USA since that is the venue for the coaching and note that we got your contact and company data from international coach federation database which we were made to understand that all the members of the above federation are reliable and professional in their different choosen area of specialization .?So you need to furnish us the cost of coaching two personel and coaching is for one week . Payment will be make to you before commencement of the coaching and the personal will travel down to meet you in canada for the coaching as soon as all arrangement is concluded. Kindly acknowledge the receipt of this mail as an indication that you receive the message via this email address or ?peterklineuk@yahoo.com Yours Faithfully, Peter Kline,?General Manager.?HRDC” I noticed that his English wasn’t so good, and in his subsequent phone call, he was hard to understand over the phone - but I couldn’t place the accent. I wasn’t so sure that his coments about the reliablity and professionality of ICF graduates were universally accurate, but I was willing to accept the benefit, particularly since I’d matriculated with Coachville!I decided that this was an opportunity to expand my practice - particularly if I could figure out what he meant by leadership training. And I figured I could get some help on this from Jonathan Flaks, who was, by chance, an upcoming speaker at the NYC Midtown Coaching Center. So I replied: 1-18-2008“Mr. Kline,?Thank you for your inquiry. If I understand correctly, you’re looking for me to coach two people on business leadership in the space of 1 week. ?They needn’t travel to Canada since I work in New York. And I’m entirely willing to travel to meet with them. My fees are $250 per hour or $1250 per day, travel and lodging expenses extra. Please let me know if you require further information. Best, Craig Jennings 516 944-6454″ “Dear Craig Jennings,?Thanks for acknowledging the receipt of my mail and the two participate for the training are coming from United Kingdom because that is where they are working in the head office of my client which the branch office is in canda that is the reason my client wanted he choosen canada for the venue of the training just for the client to be expose to other enviroment and concentrate on one week coaching .?So if you are willing to travel down to canada for the training of the participate that is also a good option but i can convince my client to shift the venue to NEW YORK so that your travel and lodging expenses can be waive out so that the participate can meet you in NEW YORK .?So I would like to know the total cost of training the two participate in New York for one week and one hour per a day so that because the training suppose to commence the first week of Feb or last week of this month all depending how soon the arrangement is concluded .You can call me on phone any time on this number: 447031922882 and I need to conclude with you as soon as possible to enable the commencement of the training . Do acknowledge the receipt of this mail as an indication that you receive the message. Regards ‘Peter Kline ” I wondered what kind of an englishman thought that someone from New York would have to travel “down” to Canada. That could have put New York somewhere north of Greenland. But I decided to refrain from giving him a lesson in geography. Later on, I’d discover who was giving a lesson to whom. “Dear Peter Kline.?I think I understand what you want.Better yet, I think I can provide it. I’ll call you in a few minutes to explore some of the details. But please find here my quotation: 1. Training in NYC, $2500 for 5 days, two people. 2. Rental of classroom, 5 days, 9-11am plus, Feb. 4-8 $425
Best, Craig Jennings” From: peter kline [mailto:peterklineuk@yahoo.com] ?Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 12:23 PM?To: Craig Jennings?Subject: today I got your quotaion and I need your contact information and your phone number that i can reach you easily as well because i just spoke with my client and he accepted the quotation , I need to get your address from you immediately because he told me that if i can forward it to him today,he will instruct his customer to issue a a check in your favor that will be forwarded to you to you to enable to cash it before the commencement of the coaching . Reply as soon as you receive this mail so that we can conclude the arrangement for the payment imemdialtely. Regards Peter As you might guess, I responded with my address immediately.?It was Friday January 18th. It would be February the 4th before the check showed up. |
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“Dear Craig Jennings,I have forwarded the address to my client and i asked my client that he should inform his customer to increase the amount of the check , so that it can accomodate the hotel accomodation of the participate and travelling expenses of the participate which he accepted So please as soon as you receive the check and cash it, you have to do me a favor by deducting coaching fees from the amount and you will send the remaining balance to the agent that will be in charge of booking for the accomodation of the participate and the travel . I will give you the information that you will use to send the money to avoid delay . I hope the check will be mail to you hopefully by monday according to my client and i will keep you posted . Regards Peter ” I didn’t want more than I’d quoted (perhaps my saving grace) and I didn’t want to become the travel agent for a couple of Limeys on a one-week all-expenses-paid junket to New York. I framed a strong disagreement, and then compromised with the following suggestion: “Peter -Do you really want us involved in your accounting? I appreciate your trust in us, but I’d suggest that separate checks are in order here. CJ” At this point, we exchange daily emails for 10 days, Peter assuring me that the check should arrive momentarily, me asking him to provide an alternative method of payment.I am also concerned that the lateness of his check will force me to delay his training, and possibly risk cancellation. As you will see, both alternative means of payment and cancellation are the furthest things from Peter’s mind. “From: peter kline [mailto:peterklineuk@yahoo.com] ?Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:44 AM?To: Craig Jennings?Subject: optionDear Craig Jennings, I received your mail and you might receive the check today or hopefully by tomorrow and if you did not receive it within this period, the option of wiring it to your account or transfering it to your card will be the next option in order to meet up with the commencement date Have a blissful day Regards Peter” Blissful!!! I’m hanging by my thumbs, my wife is totally skeptical, and he wants me to be blissful!“Dear Peter Kline, Thanks for your note below. Check still unreceived, Tuesday mail. Suggestions: 1. Wire transfer - Bank of America - NY Client Swift Code: XXXXXXXXX Routing Number: XXXXXXXX Checking: XXXXXXXXXXX 2. Credit card transfer. AMEX, VISA, MASTERCARD, DISCOVER Provide card name, card number, name of owner, expiration date, security code (reverse side). 3. Reschedule training to week of February 18-22. (We’ll have undetermined obligation for classroom re-rental.) Best,?Craig Jennings” “From:peter kline [mailto:peterklineuk@yahoo.com] ?Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 5:25 AM?To: Craig Jennings?Subject: update Dear Craig Jennings I leant that you will receive the check unfailingly this week . Keep me posted as soon as you receive the check . Regards?Peter Kline” More exchanges, and phone calls. Both his emails and phone conversations are hard to understand. I decide to get a little crisper with him. “January 29, 2008Dear Peter Kline, Thank you for your note below. We agree that the training cannot tale place as originally scheduled. The reason: the promise of payment was not fulfilled. Your client says she would like to resume on the 11th. You have several emails from me offering a start on the 18th. Did your client have this information? I have commitments on the week of the 11th that do not permit me to run his training class. Please advise if the start date of February 18 is agreeable. Also, please advise whether your client is agreeable to one of the two payment alternatives I have offered. Has he seen this information? For the record, In the event that your client agrees to a credit card or wire transfer method of payment, I agree to return his check whenever it may arrive. For the record, can you advise when it was actually sent? Please confirm your client’s decisions. 1. Agreement on starting 18 February 2. Agreement to using wire transfer or credit card for payment. Best, Craig Jennings” On Feb. 4 the check arrives, made out to my company for over $26,000. I rejoice, deposit it over my wife’s protests. I send Peter this message. “Peter -I’m pleased we have achieved payment. I will deposit it to my account. I will send the balance to your agent, and he can disburse appropriate funds to support your trainees in their visit to New York.
Please advise Agent name, address, phone, etc. so I may get the balance to him. Best, CJ I’m sure, dear reader, that both you and Peter are now smiling. This is exactly the response he wants. “Dear Peter Kline,Thanks for the instructions. Bank will take a while to clear the check. They’ll let me know today - I’ll advise you immediately. BTW, their first advice was that it will take 4-8 weeks to clear! We are pressing them for a more definitive response. Best, CJ At this point, Annie’s train leaves the track! I’m upset because it will take his check a long time to clear, postponing if not ending the job, and Annie’s terrified that it’s a bad check and we’ll be out of pocket the reimbursement.Our bank, a big one, is totally useless. Annie speaks with them, they just wag their heads and say it’ll take a long time to clear. Finally, I call June Alleyne, the Manager of State Bank in Port Washington. Her comment jolts me: “Craig, I think this might be a scam. It’s happened before with commerce between England and Canada, and sometimes Nigeria. Please fax me the check and let me make some phone calls.” I ask mysefl: Could Peter’s accesnt have been Nigerian? Is that why he had some difficulty both speaking and writing english? Ten minutes later, June calls back. The Canadian banks won’t give her any informaton (privacy, don’t ya know) so she’s moved on to the company issuing the check and spoken to the Comptroller. Comptroller’s response “Oh No, not again!” He has no connection with Peter’s firm, or interest in Leadership Training. But someone on the inside has been lifting check numbers and forms, and tweaking them to their own purposes. Annie quickly gets into action. We ask our bank to freeze the account and tell them why.
In the next day, we will switch all our accounts to the State Bank where June Alleyne is the manager.
I write back to Peter: “Feb. 5, 2005Dear Peter. Not good news. The check I deposited yesterday is bogus. The company it was written on will not honor it - apparently the account numbers were stolen. My banker believes this is a scam and has advised me not to absorb any expense whatsoever. If you actually have a training requirement that you would like to fund, please provide one of the following: A Certified Check, A Wire Transfer, or a Credit Card Number. Otherwise, thank you for the education. Best, Craig Jennings ” I still can’t believe this same-day response from Peter! “Craig Jennings, Thanks for the update of the check and i have forwarded your complian to my client which he was dumb-founded that i could his customer do such a thing and i have made it clear to her that i believe that good name is better than silver and gold and that no any other form of payment will be accepted except wire transfer , a certified check or credit your card otherwise the contract is as good as being cancelled which he promised to get back to me and she was saying that if you have the copy of the check you can send it to me through email attachment to enable her to have a serious battle with the customer . Friend, you have been a good person and i know with or without the coaching , our good relationship would not stop to exist and if i have any good business venture you will always be in my mind , i always appreciate your level of communication that is the reason i can trust and believe in you and i will be proud to recommend you to anyone for business because you are sincere Regards Peter” Yep, I’m absolutely sure Peter will keep me in mind if he has any new business ventures! And I’ll remember to weigh my wife’s skepticism more carefully in the future - but for her and for June we could easily have gotten caught for $25,000! Dear Reader - I hope this long note was worth reading through. In subsequent months, I’ll be mailing you some less dramatic concepts on managing as entrepreneurs - they include self-disovery, vision, and action. |
Craig Jennings
Testimonials
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
Is there anyone who can speak for you or your business better than you can yourself? Yes there is – your customer.
Consider that your customer knows what you do, and has had a pretty full experience of the benefits. He knows what you do, and how it impacts him. If it’s a testimonial, he likes it a lot. Also, in offering a testimonial, she has no motive for business gain. She’s just telling it “as it is.” And those who read what she has written get a very clear picture of what your business can produce. Without your interpretation or intervention.
So why is it that 95% of small business owners don’t seek or solicit testimonials?
Would you guess: FEAR!
1. We’re not sure how our client will respond.
2. We’re afraid of what we might find out.
3. We don’t know how to solicit testimonials.
So we don’t solicit testimonials. So what?
Consider the possibility that your competition doesn’t seek or solicit testimonials either! This, despite the fact that testimonials may include the most powerful value statements you could possibly offer to a potential customer. Are you passing up a big advantage? Recently, Kathy Gulrich spoke at a coaching information business I run, the NYC Midtown Coaching Center, on the book she’d written. It’s called Build Your Business With Testimonials: Ten Steps to More Clients, More Customers, More Sales. You can buy it from Kathy’s website, and you should! (Click here). I’m not going to reprise her small but effective book. I am going to challenge you to take her Testimonial Snapshot (Click here). See what you know, and what you can learn. Now, let’s suppose that you’re ready to get started. You need a procedural structure. How about an email inquiry with telephone follow-up – would that be an acceptable process for getting a vote of thanks from a customer?
Sneak a peek.
This document comes from the Famous Fabienne Fredrickson, a superb coach of coaches who, a long time ago, coached me on this topic. Visit her at www.clientattraction.com but for now, sneak a peek and her Testimonial Form and Click here.
Now you know what you know and need to learn.
Now you know how to go about it.
The Word-Of-Mouth (where else would it come from, the elbow?)
Many of us wait for “word of mouth” to bestow its blessings upon us. “Word of mouth” is an unsolicited comment from someone who knows us to someone we don’t know which ultimately results in new business for us. Does “word of mouth” sound unlikely?
It does happen. But you have no control over it! It’s not something you can invest in, like an advertising campaign. It’s not even something you can provoke. It’s just something you sit around and wait for. It reminds me of Blanche Dubois’ lament “I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers!” Not a good way to build relationships, or a business either.
Getting In Action.
Instead, get in action. Get to the people you think approve of your business. Ask them to respond to you. If they don’t respond right away, call them and go over Fabienne’s process. Might you be amazed at how willing your good customers are to help you?
And get those testimonials on your website where they can be seen. One more story about Kathy Gulrich – who helped me “testimonialize” my website. When she asked me how I managed testimonials, I responded (smugly) “very well!” I’d been using Fabienne’s model very successfully, and I’d put all the testimonials in a section cleverly marked “Testimonials.”. Then Kathy asked me: Did I have a traffic measurement on my site. “Yep.” Would I look at it and see what kind of traffic my testimonials got? Oooops! About 1-2%. I’d carefully hidden them on my website, where 98-99% of my visitors would miss them. What to do?
Kathy advised: “Use them to prove the points you want your website to make. Put them out where your visitors will trip over them!” I did, and, since then, almost every new client coming from my website has commented on the testimonials. Have a look! Click Here!
I believe that testimonials are an extraordinary resource available to all of us who have customers. You can learn some remarkable things from your customers. Testimonials are free, they’re powerful, and they’re forever – once your customer has put some kind words in writing and you have permission to use this material, you can use it as long as you please, Try it, and let me know how it works for you. Hey, you might even give me a testimonial.
Craig Jennings
Aided Accountability!
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
There is no success without accountability. But if you’d rather have people accountable to you than be accountable to them, this newsletter may be for you.
There are at least three kinds of accountability: them to you, you to you, you to us.
Them to you: If you have a printer doing work for you, and getting paid by you, then he or she is probably accountable for delivering the finished product at a specified time. Simple.
You to you. If you do not answer to yourself, you’re unlikely to manage the more complex tasks, assignments, projects, goals of a small business. But it’s difficult for many of us to be as tough or rigorous with ourselves as you would be with the printer if he didn’t deliver on time.
It seems that most entrepreneurs take on their own business and their own sovereignty in order to avoid taking orders from “the man” particularly when “the man” was a jerk. And we acknowledge that we have earned the right to do what we have to do when (and not until) we choose to do it. This includes the right to procrastinate.
On the other hand, when we procrastinate, the business suffers and we suffer. Things don’t get done, opportunities are missed, conflicts go unresolved. And it happens to us all.
Within the world of small business ownership, then, are some dangers we’ve designed into it. We know that if we’re not accountable, we cannot be successful. And we know that, as individuals, we’re dangerous “we don’t always act in our own best interests” we can be sleazy, evasive. (What I mean by “we” here is “me” and “many of my clients.” You can decide about you.)
You to us. I function as an accountability partner to most of my clients. Here’s how it works “it may be something you want. It’s someone to help you keep your focus, keep the successes coming, even when you’re feeling distracted. Your accountability partner just helps you be sure that you don’t blow off the issues which are inconvenient, and important.
I don’t want to suggest that a business coach is a dominatrix for the businessman or businesswoman. Accountability is not a pain-based game with whips and chains. But, from my own experience, I have found is that as a coachee I absolutely need the help of my coach to get all the things done that I want to do. And my clients use me to help them get past the “I dowanna, you can’t make me! “voice of resistance that can imperil the success of a small business. One client suggests that that voice sounds very much like an angry seven-year-old!
Here’s how Aided Accountability works. You promise and publish accomplishments or goals. These can be short (one-week) and long (2 months and 12 months) accomplishments. If you don’t accomplish every promise, we review it jointly to see how we can make it happen soon - next week, next cycle, next year. There isn’t an implication of punishment or wrong-doing here you can be proud to keep the promises you make, and when you neglect them (whatever the reason) you’re more highly motivated to complete them in the next term.
You might see it as ironic that small business ownership includes being accountable to yourself, that being fully accountable is something many of us avoid, and that being accountable to yourself alone is probably one of the most difficult tasks there is. Personally, it’s a place where I welcome help and I pay gladly for that help. The model I propose in the previous paragraph is one that I’ve followed for several years. If you think that you could use some help in your own accountability, I’m good at this, and I’d be happy to discuss it with you.
Call me at 516 944-6454 or email to craig@craigjennings.com.
About Sales II
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
About Sales II
In our first installment on this worthy topic, we covered:
1. A self-assessment
2. The SCAN technique
3. Features vs. Benefits
4. The sanity check - SW, SW, SW, MO
5. The ideal client
If you want to refresh your memory, go to my website at craigjennings.com, and have a look at the newsletter archives for October. And, if you need a little motivation to set out on this journey, remember that, next to you, sales is the most important issue in your business. This newsletter should continue our objectives with:
1. Prospecting for leads
2. Networking
3. Asking for referrals
4. Follow-up planning
We’ll end this installment here, and go on to the 5 items below in about 10 days.
5. Setting agendas and generating customer qualification
6. Objection management.
7. Closing the sale.
8. Managing your pipeline
9. Call resistance - fear of rejection.
Once again, I’d like to acknowledge Liz Kallen, of Exceed Associates, who provided much of the material for this newsletter. She teaches sales techniques, and can be reached at liz@exceedassociates.com.
Should you do everything I propose here? You might, or might not. But I talk with a lot of small businesses - and the ones who have sales problems haven’t taken these on. If you want there to be a lot of money around your business, sales is the key.
What’s a lead?
Imagine you’re a shark, cruising the depths, and beginning to feel a little hungry. A school of tasty fish swim by, but you perceive the school, not the individual fish. It’s not until one of them separates himself from the school that you smile, accelerate, and wham! Lunch is served!
And today, the people who might be customers are schooling too. Whether they travel in packs or not, the problem is not lack of leads. It’s making a connection with individual customers on a personal level.
So, a lead is not all the people who might use your product or service, any more than the phone book is a useful tool for finding customers. A lead is the identification of an individual or a group of specific individuals as potential customers. It’s a decision which takes place in your mind - just as it did for the shark!
Where do you go to make these decisions?
1. Identify some Networking groups - they’ll be advertised. Create a short description of what kind of solution or outcome your product or service provides, and be prepared to share it. Whether your outside interests are political, social, or just business, be on the lookout for an affinity group where you believe that members can benefit from the product/service you provide, and separate a few fish from the school. Again, ask friends or customers where they have identified useful groups which might interest you. Could you create a group on your own?
2. Networking groups contain leads. An enterprising shark will cruise the group, tasting gently, one-by-one, exploring possibility. Simple questions: Tell me about your business; what made you decide to attend this function. Set yourself a target of having a good, probing conversation with just two or three people, one of whom might turn out to be a customer. Find people you think you might be able to help. And don’t worry about giving out your business card. Just get theirs! Put a note on their card when you get it to help you identify the prospect later. Give them your business card if they ask for it!
3. Referrals from clients produce leads. Since your clients have already experienced the benefits of your product/service, most will be comfortable to make referrals. Make it easy for them to do this by being specific about the type of person/industry/income level and so forth that you want to meet. To the response - I’d love to refer you, but don’t know where - ask them if there’s a place they go daily - Starbucks, for example. “Do you see anyone there you might speak with for me?” Ask if they work with any small business or social groups. “Who do you know in that group that might benefit from my services the way you have?” Invite your clients to do as much of the work as possible. Ask them to call the prospect, and suggest the prospect take the initiative and call you. You may have to ask more than once. But most clients will be happy to do it, (they just need reminding and encouraging.)
4. Cold calling. Any direct-mail house will sell you a list of 1000 potential customers, with phone numbers, sorted by zip code, income, or any of a dozen criteria. Then you plan an inquiry or create a script, call, collect your no’s, and keep at it until you connect. If you don’t want to do the work yourself, professional cold-callers get a fee for setting up appointments for you. Check with Norma Siciliano at (212) 472-2650 - she’s one of the best.
5. Centers of influence. Someone or some group of people in a related field. If you sell insurance, a stockbroker could be a C of I. Your approach - how can you bring value to the stockbroker - e.g.. refer him to some of your customers. If he’s any good, he’ll quickly find a way to reciprocate.
6. Newsletters - like this one. Publish regularly, and topically. First, create a list of names of people you’d like to communicate with. If you don’t already have one, see Direct Mail, below.
7. Direct mail. Create a letter or postcard. Try it on a small group first. You can buy names for about 10¢ a piece, mail a postcard for about 25¢, etc. etc. You can create a paper mailing, or a digital mailing. You’ll also need to create a record-keeping process so that you can follow up the maybes a week later
8. Public speaking. When you speak in public, you present yourself as an expert to a group of people, and some of them will want to know more about your service or product. At the very least, have a clipboard at the back of the room, or generate a raffle to collect the business cards of the interested.
9. Public Relations. Write articles for publication for media talking to client groups, or send press releases to these publications.
10. Advertising - Consider all the “bad” commercials you see on TV. Could you do better? Even if you’re not going to have a great Superbowl commercial, get professional help around Radio, Newspaper, Billboards, TV, even give-aways and leaflets.
Funnel your leads. Your leads go in the top of the funnel, sales come out the bottom. First, have a look at the people you’ve identified as leads. Do a little math, and figure out what each of them cost you. $1? $10, $100? Now that you know how valuable they are, make a plan to keep track of them - an ACT database, an Excel spreadsheet. Call that the top of the funnel. Then make a plan to stay in contact with them - one sales professional says that it takes 6 “no’s” to get to 1 “yes”. Count how many leads you put in your prospects “funnel” each month. Count how many sales come out the bottom of the funnel. Yes, there’s a relationship. Over time, you may learn that it takes 10 prospects to make 1 sale. You need 10 sales a month to keep afloat? Plan on generating 100 leads a month, then the sales will take care of themselves. Simple?
About Sales III
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
Mission: To release the handbrake, remove the obstacles to your success, whether you are responsible for your own results, planning a personal venture, or are now self-employed.
About Sales III
This is the third installment of the same topic, picking up where we left off last month. If you’re committed to becoming more powerful in the area of sales, you may want to go back to my website, tag “Newsletter Archives” and read the first and second installments - I know I had to!
10. Setting Agendas and gaining agreement.
What’s your prospect most afraid of? That you will make him uncomfortable by persisting in an argument he wants to end. It’s called “being sold to.” It’s the old-style sales approach, where you browbeat the customer into saying yes. Solution: Set agendas and agreements at the outset - what you plan to cover, what you will be asking of him, what kind of responses you’re looking for.
One salesman I know proposes an up-front agreement something like this. “Towards the end of this conversation, most people will either say yes, no, or I’ll think about it. Some people are worried that they’ll hurt my feelings, or perhaps they have unanswered questions, so they say ‘I’ll think about it’ or ‘I’ll have to talk with my wife, my boss, etc.’ But no is really a good answer, as is yes. Would you be willing to just say yes or no?”
Here’s another. A client of mine called a prospect he didn’t know. “I’m not interested” said the client, even before my client had introduced the proposition. He repeated “I’m not interested” several times, while my client suggested, in a friendly and reasonable way, that the prospect might at least like to find out what was at stake before he made the judgment. My client persisted where many of us might have just hung up - and the client ultimately listened, and made a key referral. We later decided that, when your client says “I’m not interested” and stays on the phone, he’s still interested! You also might agree that it was a super piece of salesmanship!
11. Handling Concerns.
When a prospect senses they will need to make a decision about something, what concerns come up for him or her? Here are some.
* Making a mistake
* The unknown
* Becoming embarrassed
* Your honesty
* Owing money
* Failing at something
In each case, your prospect is asking for you to help him to get past the concern. If you can, he may access another concern, or he may go straight on to the close.
The Trap.
Responding with denial - “No, it’s not too expensive!” Prospect interprets this response as “You’re wrong, I’m right.” Not many sales get closed by people who are right! Recommendation: Handle each objection the best you can, make the customer right for having brought up the objection, then show him or her a way around the objection. “We have a payment plan.” “I can see where you’d think so, but…”. It may take you a number of sales calls to learn all the objections that are likely to come up, and devise ways around them. If you’re like me, you’ll think of what you should have said after the call is finished! Too bad, but write it down and you’ll be prepared next time. It won’t take you long to become very effective at handling concerns. Remember, each stupid, unreasonable, argumentative concern is a hidden request for solution and a closing.
Here’s a structure for handling concerns.
1. Hear them out, all the way.
2. Feed it back, just the way they said it.
3. Question it.
4. Respond to it.
5. Confirm that they understand your answer.
6. Find out if they’ve gotten completion on the concern. If no, go back to #1; if yes, go to 7 below.
7. Change the direction and move on.
12. Closing the sale.
No matter how desperately your customer wants your product or service, he probably won’t take it until you invite him to. And the biggest single reason why sales don’t get made is that the salesperson doesn’t ask the customer for the business. If you don’t ask you don’t get. Ah, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get rejected! Of course, you don’t get the business either. Call reluctance and closing reluctance are a whole ‘nother conversation, coming later. Let’s assume you can manage them - here are some closing processes you can try.
1. How does this sound to you? Would you like to try this? When do you see this getting started?
2. Would you like to try this?
3. When do you see this getting started?
4. Which would you prefer - A or B?
5. Pro’s and Con’s. Ask the prospect to write down a list of each. Help with the positives. Don’t help with the negatives.
6. Point out someone who’s in a similar position, and how your product or service is benefiting them.
7. Address the concerns raised, consider each as a buying signal, and then go back to #1.
Closing traps.
* When you’ve asked the closing question, shut up! Let the customer answer it. Your customer has to make a choice, and most customers will look for ways to avoid choosing. Let there be silence after you ask the customer for the business - honor the fact that your customer is choosing. (If you feel the need to clarify or explain, don’t! Consider the possibility that your own anxiety about the sale might prompt you to sabotage the customer’s decision process.)
* Beware of feeling tense, upset or angry when a sale doesn’t take place. Diagnosis: This sale was about the wrong person. It was about you and your concerns - it should have been about the customer. Allow yourself to be disappointed that a customer can’t or won’t accept your proposal. But it’s the customer’s responsibility to choose for him/herself. Feeling badly, perceiving a no as rejection, or being angry is an emotional process you shouldn’t indulge in. You may want the sale and you may have worked hard to generate it, but it’s up to the customer, not you, to create the buying action. If you’ve done your best for the customer, and they won’t accept the outcome you offer, recite our mantra - SW, SW, SW, MO - Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Move On!
13. Managing your pipeline.
At this point, perhaps you are developing your own system of keeping your pipeline full. Your prospects go in your “funnel,” you keep a regular measure of the traffic, and you begin to see how this contributes to your personal income. You may wonder whether all the work is worth it - maybe you’ll just skip this step. I confess to listening closely to that temptation myself. But, there is no motivation like the sure knowledge that what you are doing will produce results that you want. If you want control of your own motivation, there’s nothing like keeping score! You can’t win without success, and you can’t succeed without failure. If you avoid keeping score, then we know what’s going on, don’t we!
14. Call or Closing Resistances.
They exist! They probably exist in you. The first trick is to unmask them. What are the masks? Each of us has our own.
Here are a few:
1. I’m too busy.
2. I need a cigarette break, bathroom break, any other break!
3. I can’t find the address, the file, the phone number.
4. This prospect is too ??? - stupid, poor, dysfunctional, unfocused, annoying.
5. (Loudly) “Oh, I’m so disorganized!” (Intended to generate pity and sympathy.)
6. What excuses do you find for yourself?
And the conversation behind the question is the mother lode.
* I really don’t want to be successful.
* Maybe a different job?
* I’m Un??? where Un is completed with: worthy, focused, successful, organized, acceptable, and so forth.
When we make excuses for ourselves, we do our best to make them stick and we defend them almost to the death! We will hold as true stuff we know to be untrue - “I’m unsuccessful” is a favorite - just to keep the excuse working. This is a place where a coach can make an enormous difference and help you give up the excuses that stand in the way of the success you really want to be. Hint: 516 944-6454 or craig@craigjennings.com.
15. Resolve to be a sales master!
Consider what would be possible if you took on becoming a sales master. You’re good at it now. And you can get by the way you are. But Mastery is where the money is! As you’ve read through these newsletters, you’ve seen that there are two simple issues - take on some processes you already know how to do but don’t do, and give up some processes which don’t work for you. Would you like to have your business awash with money? You don’t have to be the biggest shark in the ocean - but wouldn’t it be nice to be the fattest one!
If you’d like to see how your business would work if you got a little help now and again, explore the possibility of coaching by calling 516-944-6454 or email to craig@craigjennings.com
Small Business, Legal Structures, Part 1
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
To Incorporate or Not to Incorporate, Part II
Posted by: craigj under Uncategorized
The Corporation. Corporations come in three flavors, C Corp, S Corp and LLC. The three have much in common
1. The major virtue that the Corporation brings to the table is its “persona.” Whether it’s General Motors Corp. or “You” Corp., it stands as a legal entity or person, protecting its owners and participants from personal exposure to legal liability as a consequence of activities of the Corporation. The U.S. Supreme Court calls it “an artificial being, invisible, intangible and existing only in contemplation of the law.”
This is a great vehicle for that Skydiving venture we spoke about before - let’s now call it Skydiving Inc. If one of your clients has a dysfunctional parachute and ends up a splotch on the pavement, his grieving relatives will find it difficult to collect from you personally. They can sue Skydiving Inc., and, if successful, take all its assets, but you have interposed this legal entity between them and you. Skydiving is an extreme example - but if someone slips on your stairs or drops your hot coffee in their lap, and you have to answer in court, it’s preferable that it’s your company’s assets, not your own, that are at issue. This protection has been called “the corporate veil” and allows the entrepreneur to compartmentalize his risk. He is not personally liable for debts and obligations of the corporation, beyond the extent of his investment in the corporation. (Oh yes, the IRS and State Tax authorities can come after you for certain unpaid taxes, including payroll. But if the business fails or loses a lawsuit, the general creditors cannot attach your home, your car, or personal property.) My attorney-reader points out that this doesn’t make you totally safe in all circumstances. What it does mean is that the path to your assets is much more difficult for a creditor than it would be if you were running a sole proprietorship.
2. The Corporation has the ability to raise capital by issuing shares of stock, either publicly or privately. Public stock offerings are highly regulated by federal and state governments; but private transfers must simply follow the rules of the stockholder agreement. If someone wants to give you $60,000 for a 30% interest in your company, you will have to issue him enough shares so that he has 30% of the total shares issued. Then you can put the $60,000 in the bank.
3. Incorporated businesses allow their owners to deduct certain fringe benefits such as pensions, retirement plans and other profit-sharing plans. These deductions can reduce the amount of taxable income that the business declares, and increase the net benefits to the owners
4. Unlike the sole proprietorship, the corporation’s life can exceed yours. This may produce an asset for your heirs which could be lost under the terms of the sole proprietorship.
1. The C Corp.
The C Corp. provides all the useful features listed above. However, there are also some liabilities:
1. “Double taxation” is uniquely a liability of a C Corp. Since such a corporation generates its own profit, it is taxed independently of its members. If the C Corp. passes funds on to its owners as a dividend, profit sharing or other distribution, the recipients must pay taxes on the receipts. So the dollar that ends up in your account has gone through two separate tax machines first.
2. The corporation is a fountainhead of bureaucracy and governmental regulation. Corporate activity is limited and described in law, and the directors must abide by strict regulations. If you overlook the record-keeping regulations or fail to fulfill other requirements such as maintaining separate bank accounts, it’s possible for the courts to set aside your corporate status, “piercing the corporate veil.” Editorial note: You can get Articles of Incorporation from an attorney, accountant or from internet resources. You’ll receive the “Black Beauty” including binder, stock certificates, documentation and corporate seal, and the internet version is usually substantially cheaper. However, the lawyer or accountant should spend some effort on your setup, and provide you with the methodology for maintaining the corporate records successfully. This could turn out to be the far more economical course in the long run, possibly a business lifesaver.
3. What does the state have to do with it? First of all, the corporation is governed by the laws of the state you’re incorporated in. Delaware has been the choice of large corporations for some time. Nevada has become a more interesting choice as the state of incorporation for small businesses recently. For details, your attorney should interpret.
4. One other “state” issue - corporations have to “qualify to do business” in states where they are not incorporated. How important is this if you have a business in New York and you expect some business from Connecticut or New Jersey? Check with your attorney or accountant.
5. Finally, closing down a corporate existence, or even changing the structure, can be complicated, and, where lawyers are involved, complicated usually means expensive and time-consuming.
2. The S Corp. An alternative to the C Corp, the S Corp is frequently preferred by the consultant, sole proprietor, or other small businessperson.
1. Taxation. Do you recall that in the Sole Proprietorship or partnership, income went straight to your personal tax return? Same for the S Corp, so there’s no “double taxation.”
2. The “corporate veil” is maintained.
3. The structure is far less complex; you simply pay taxes on what you make. Paperwork and bookkeeping requirements are less stringent.
4. In addition, there’s another special benefit - you can “carry forward” losses from prior years to offset current earnings. Since most small business startups are not immediately profitable, it sounds as if this structure was made to order for us.
3. The LLC or Limited Liability Company. Finally, the LLC or Limited Liability Company may provide you the best of both worlds. While it is not, strictly speaking, a corporation, it provides similar assets, particularly if you’re planning an organization with more than one owner.
1. Taxation. While the LLC is designed to serve multiple owners, it allows the pass-through tax status of the simple partnership - the members pay the taxes, the company does not.
2. Liability protection. Also, members enjoy limited liability protection - each member’s risk is limited to his/her investment in the business. And a barrier akin to the “corporate shield’ is in place, so personal assets are protected.
3. Some disadvantages - with this structure, you must make public notice before you start, by advertising your intention in the news media.
4. Also, you can’t offer stock to employees with an LLC, significant difference from a C Corp or S Corp. Other advantages and liabilities of the LLC are arcane, and best explained by your lawyer.
5. Cost. Your lawyer will also explain why it may be 3-4 times more expensive to set up an LLC for you than an S Corp or C Corp.
To summarize, we’ve looked at Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, the C Corp., the S Corp and the LLC. The first is absolutely the quickest and simplest way to get your venture open for business. The second is designed to give multiple owners an equally fast start. The last three offer some important safeguards, are more time-consuming and expensive in setup and in ongoing maintenance, and should not be chosen without some legal counsel.
(If you missed the prior installments, you can access them on my website, www.craigjennings.com under Newsletter Archives. Look for them.
And, if you’d like a little help now and again to get your small business started, or moving forward more powerfully, I’ll talk with you a while (516 944-6454) for free.
That summarizes the available legal structures for our beginning business. Pick one, and let’s get on with it. In the next installment, we’ll talk about sales, a subset of marketing.
We’re tackling sales next for one important reason - without sales, you have no business (or at least, not for very long!)
If you’d like to see how your business would work if you got a little help now and again, explore the possibility of coaching by calling 516-944-6454 or email to craig@craigjennings.com
