Refine your processes. Reach your business goals.

When was the last time you used a map instead of GPS? Or an encyclopedia instead of Google?  Times have changed. Technology has evolved. But have your business processes kept pace?

Many of us have solid business plans. We set goals—but then we revert to old-school processes and practices instead of using efficient, technology-based organizational tools to help us map out and accomplish the tasks and activities required to reach those goals. 

It takes more than good intention to achieve success. I often meet with sales reps who know exactly what they want to accomplish. Their big picture: I want to sell $1MM this year. To make that happen, I need to change the way I service my existing clients, so I will pitch one new idea per month, conduct two business reviews, take the client to lunch quarterly, etc.

These goals are great. But what tools are you using to make sure you’re following up? To hold yourself accountable? In order to be successful, you need to proactively drive the tasks associated with achieving your specific goals. A technology-based organizational system gives you the structure required to manage—and accomplish—those everyday tasks. It allows you to break your plan down into individual tasks, and then prioritize and re-position those tasks, as needed.

Pick a tool that works for you. There are so many technology platforms and apps available for organization. (I use Wrike for project and task management. It’s a cross between a glorified to-do list and a project management tool.)  Wrike displays a dashboard for my day that lists my tasks, including notes, dates, etc. This is my charge: It reflects those things that I’ve consciously and mindfully decided I need to do to accomplish my goals.

Be intentional. You might be using the notes app on your phone or a pad of paper to keep track of your to-do list. I’ve seen sales reps use these “systems” to organize their tasks, only to result in chaos: Their days run them. Using an organizational system allows you to dictate how you spend your day versus letting email and phone calls take control. It’s the framework that leads to a greater capacity of work and more sales.

Make better decisions. Without forethought, most of us hit the easy button: We choose to spend our time in low-impact areas as opposed to those tasks that ultimately lead to bigger results. Using an organizational system challenges you to make the conscious decision to spend your time on high-level tasks, avoiding low-level distractions.

Jump in with both feet. This is a commitment! Incorporating an organizational system into your everyday routine or practice is a game-changer—but, for it to be effective, you must be fully engaged. I use my program to drive all business and personal tasks—it’s what keeps me on track and helps me manage the things in my life that are most important to me.

I challenge you: Formulate your plan, convert that plan into an executional task list, and implement a tool to help you start crushing your goals. Are you already using an organizational system platform or app? Please share your input with us on facebook.

Bob De Garmo

Setting Goals for Business Success in 2019

I’m a big believer in the power of planning. It’s that time of year again when many of us look back at our progress over the past 12 months, reassess our path, and develop a plan for making the most of the year ahead.

An article in Inc. magazine by Aha! CEO Brian de Haaff talks about the use of planning to achieve success in business. Here’s what he says: “Successful people take a methodical approach to setting career goals. It starts with defining what ‘success’ means to them, then building a career roadmap to achieve that vision.”

It all starts with a plan that defines where you want to go. de Haaff suggests that you come up with a career sentence—the overarching vision for your professional life. “Your sentence could be specific, such as ‘Help build software that changes the way people interact with their doctors.’” Or it could be more wide-sweeping, like “Provide world-class customer service.” Once you’ve set your destination, you can focus on the goals that will get you there.

Here are de Haaff’s five steps to setting career goals:

1. Make it real. Making measurable career goals and setting success metrics will help ensure that your career roadmap is realistic. With those benchmarks in place, you can track your progress in a meaningful way.
 
2. Push yourself. Your career roadmap should be a challenge, not a cakewalk. If your goals don’t make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, then it’s time to set your sights higher. Push yourself in your overall vision and in the tasks that will carry you there.

3. Write it down. Research shows that people who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them. One of the many benefits is that it forces you to think about what you want to achieve in a concrete way.  If you have a hard time finding the words to explain your goal in a sentence or two, you probably have not thought it through.

4. Share your plan. Another benefit of writing down your goals is that it makes it easier to share them. Once you’ve told your friends and colleagues about your goals, you will feel a sense of disappointment if you do not follow through. Accountability is a great motivator.

Credit: Getty Images

5. Visualize your success. A common practice of high achievers is visualizing success. Sports psychologists teach elite athletes to picture themselves connecting with the fastball, kicking the field goal, sinking the putt. You can do the same with your long-term career goals and the efforts that will get you there. Use positive visualization to motivate yourself to work harder.

Read the Inc. article by clicking the link below:
https://www.inc.com/brian-de-haaff/how-successful-people-set-career-goals.html

Take the first step in driving success in 2019 by creating your career sentence and then setting your goals. After that, it is all about commitment and follow-through.  Establishing a set schedule to monitor your progress, whether that’s daily, weekly or monthly, will help get you there.

If you’re looking for someone to share your goals with and hold you accountable, connect with me and I’ll do the same. bdegarmo@shamrockcompanies.net

Good luck!
Bob DeGarmo 

Let’s Get Personal: 13 Places To Research Your Potential Customer.

There’s no such thing as TMI when it comes to doing business research. Today, we’ve got access to data at our fingertips, and even on our wrists, about everything from market trends and industry performance, to products and services.

When you’re looking at research from the sales perspective, it becomes a uniquely personal search. A successful salesperson gathers that critical business data, and also works to make a personal connection with his/her customer by finding what makes that customer tick.
 

While I’m not suggesting you creep on your prospect’s Instagram, I am saying that a little effort to get personal goes a long way. Finding out more about your prospect on both a business and personal level can help you align your products or services to better provide value. By leading with that targeted, personalized value proposition, your communication instantly becomes more approachable and authentic. And when accompanied with diligent industry and product/service research, it gives you the advantage that can help close the sale.
 

To help you get started, I’ll paraphrase a HubSpot article that provides a list of resources for conducting comprehensive customer research:

1. LinkedIn. Find details about your prospect’s job responsibilities or duties, past employment history, and learn of any shared connections. Also click through to their groups to see what’s being talked about; and review what content they’ve shared recently.
2. Twitter. Use his/her personal page to get a sense of interests or to identify trends. Also check on the company’s page to understand how they present their brand.
3. The Company’s Website: Press Page. Scroll through recent news and do the same for that of their competitors.
4. Blogs. Read what your buyer reads and read what your buyer writes.
5. Facebook. Pick up personal information or identify shared friends or organizations.
6. Your Marketing Automation System. Search the prospect's name in your system to turn up existing contact records. Maybe they’ve contacted you? If this buyer is already familiar with your product/service, tailor your approach to their current stage in the buying process.
7. Your CRM in case another team member has reached out in the past—use the existing data profile to your benefit.
8. Google the prospect and the company to uncover additional details that might not have turned up in other searches.
9. Quora. Use Quora to understand what your prospect is hoping to learn or if there are any issues he/she is currently facing.
10. Glassdoor. Find out about the company’s culture; if they're hiring new employees in a division related to your product, that's a good sign.
11. Datanyze offers a free Chrome Extension that you can click while on the prospect's website to see which technology tools they're currently using.
12. Crunchbase gives you information on acquisition history, investors, customers, and more. 
13. Yelp. If your prospect works directly with consumers browsing their Yelp page is a great way to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses.

Is there any tool that you use that’s not on my list? Please share with me on LinkedIn.
 

Tim Connor

 

5 Sales Presentation Tips You Need To Know

Whether your business is selling widgets or creative ideas, you must make sales to drive revenue. And if you’re selling, then you’re also pitching to potential customers. I’ve been in sales for more than 20 years and have learned a few things along the way that are worth sharing:

The most important part of your sales presentation is the pre-meeting discovery call to uncover your prospect’s issues and needs. Your presentation should respond to everything you learned. Very similar to a job interview, ask the customer what they are looking for in a candidate, then spend the interview positioning yourself accordingly.

Next is preparation. For me, the more prepared I am, the more relaxed and genuine I am. It improves my ability to interact without losing concentration or control of the presentation. Don’t confuse this with a memorized speech: Preparation is about aligning the content and key points that I want to communicate.

An article in Entrepreneur magazine offers some tips for the next step: Sitting down with the potential customer. Here’s a summary of 5 tips to help you refine your sales presentation for greater success:

1.Avoid product knowledge mistakes.
There are three common pitfalls to avoid regarding product knowledge:
1. Not knowing your product
2. Sharing too much about your product
3. Not knowing your competition

The article sums it up well: “You can never know too much but you can certainly talk too much. Become an expert with your product and be able to discuss features, advantages, and benefits better than anyone. When comparing products, know how your product is different, know the advantages, and know how to make sense of the purchase.


2. Control your presentation.
Leading with solid preparation, your ultimate goal is to gain complete control while presenting. “The way to gain control is by getting an agreement. Get the buyer’s full attention, get the product away from other products so they aren’t distracted, and present the product while in full control.”

3. Find what the buyer values.
Tell your customer what you’re going to do and get an agreement. Example: What matters most to you when you purchase uniforms for your staff? Are you looking first for quality or lowest cost? Quality? Great, then let’s discuss how our vendor network allows us to provide the best in brand-name quality.

“Be interesting and reassure the customer with any concerns. Break your presentation down into parts. Know where you’re going to start and end. Always get permission to give the presentation, address the time (how long it’ll take), invite any questions they may have, and start in the same place every time you give the presentation. You want stability for yourself.”

4. Avoid making lazy mistakes.
Always do a demonstration. Don’t take the opportunity for granted when you sit down with your customer. With today’s technology, demonstrations need not be time consuming, but rather, engaging and informative exchanges with your potential customer.

5. Anticipate objections.
You’re going to get objections when you try and do a sales presentation—it happens to the best of us.

“I don’t need to see how it operates”

“I know all about it”

“Don’t shortcut the presentation because this is where you build value. Understand that these objections are reactions, not valid objections. To handle these, be committed to your demonstration. You have to know that your demonstration will be of value to your client.”

Access the full article here: http://entm.ag/ebh

Do you have sales presentation tips that aren’t on this list? I’d like to hear them. Connect with me @ bdegarmo@shamrockcompanies.net

Good luck!
Bob De Garmo

Setting Goals for Business Success in 2018

I’m a big believer in the power of planning. It’s that time of year again when many of us look back at our progress over the past 12 months, reassess our path, and develop a plan for making the most of the year ahead.

A recent article in Inc. magazine by Aha! CEO Brian de Haaff talks about the use of planning to achieve success in business. Here’s what he says: “Successful people take a methodical approach to setting career goals. It starts with defining what ‘success’ means to them, then building a career roadmap to achieve that vision.”

It all starts with a plan that defines where you want to go. de Haaff suggests that you come up with a career sentence—the overarching vision for your professional life. “Your sentence could be specific, such as ‘Help build software that changes the way people interact with their doctors.’” Or it could be more wide-sweeping, like “Provide world-class customer service.” Once you’ve set your destination, you can focus on the goals that will get you there.

Here are de Haaff’s five steps to setting career goals:
1. Make it real. Making measurable career goals and setting success metrics will help ensure that your career roadmap is realistic. With those benchmarks in place, you can track your progress in a meaningful way.
 
2. Push yourself. Your career roadmap should be a challenge, not a cakewalk. If your goals don’t make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, then it’s time to set your sights higher. Push yourself in your overall vision and in the tasks that will carry you there.

3. Write it down. Research shows that people who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them. One of the many benefits is that it forces you to think through what you want to achieve in a concrete way. If you have a hard time finding the words to explain your goal in a sentence or two, you probably have not thought it through.

4. Share your plan. Another benefit of writing down your goals is that it makes it easier to share them. Once you’ve told your friends and colleagues about your goals, you will feel a sense of disappointment if you do not follow through. Accountability is a great motivator.

Credit: Getty Images

5. Visualize your success. A common practice of high achievers is visualizing success. Sports psychologists teach elite athletes to picture themselves connecting with the fastball, kicking the field goal, sinking the putt. You can do the same with your long-term career goals and the efforts that will get you there. Use positive visualization to motivate yourself to work harder.

Read the Inc. article by clicking the link below:
https://www.inc.com/brian-de-haaff/how-successful-people-set-career-goals.html

Take the first step in driving success in 2018 by creating your career sentence and then setting your goals. After that, it is all about commitment and follow-through. Establishing a set schedule to monitor your progress, whether that’s daily, weekly or monthly, will help get you there.

If you’re looking for someone to share your goals with and hold you accountable, connect with me and I’ll do the same. bdegarmo@shamrockcompanies.net

Good luck!
Bob DeGarmo 

All-In Athletes: 5 Pillars for Everyday Success

I was channel surfing last night and landed on ESPN’s 30 for 30 segment about basketball coach John Calipari. While I’m not a Kentucky fan, I do respect coaches who connect with their players and help them realize their potential. Calipari is a master motivator with an incredible command of the game. That was my takeaway. And it got me thinking: Isn’t that the winning combination we all need to succeed?

As a former college athlete, I often draw on lessons learned from athletics to center and motivate myself in business—and I have resource I’d like to share. All-In Athletes is an organization focused on helping high school students become the best they can be through motivational messages from top performers in different fields.

Author Joe Behm is a friend of mine from John Carroll University; he and Andy Smith collaborated on the book: All-In: Playbook to Become A Student-Athlete Role Model. The All-In messages and lessons are organized around “5 Pillars” and a simple approach to living life:

• Smart. When talent is equal, the competitor that is better prepared mentally has the winning advantage 
• Strong. Physical and mental strength provides a foundation to develop skills and techniques for maximum results  
• Respectful. Respect exposes your character by the way you conduct yourself in victory and defeat 
• Commitment. Best summed up by Pat Riley, “There are only two options regarding Commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.” 
• Honor. Being true to your personal values and ideals and being a person of integrity who can overcome fear and take action 

All-In Athletes also offers a free daily motivational quote mailed to your inbox. I’ve subscribed—and I’m enjoying them as positive preparation for my workday. To take advantage of these daily motivators, and/or to order the book, click on the link below.

www.all-inathletes.com

It’s worth checking out. Enjoy!

Tim Connor