Lessons for Business from Nature

Why try and invent something that has already been perfected by millions of years of evolution?

I have been come across some great analogy's where nature teaches us some great lessons.

We can learn lessons about building a productive team by looking at

1) How birds work together when they fly

2) How bees communicate

3) How termites work together to construct amazing structures

4) How to create lasting relationships from penguins

Nature also applies certain underlying principles in a spectacular variety of imaginative form. For example in nature we find;
1) Economic use of materials
2) Maximum structural strength
3) Maximum enclosed volume
4) Extremely high strength-to-weight ratios
5) Utilisation of stress and strain as a basis for structural efficiency
6) Energy efficiency through form without external power
7) Form that enhances air circulation
8) Use of local materials for building
9) Curvilinear forms that disperse and dissipate multi-directional forces
10) Integration of aerodynamic efficiency with structural form
11) Producing nothing that is toxic to the environment
12) Designs structures that can be built by a single organism

Here is the lesson that we learn from geese. This provides a perfect example of the importance of team work and how it can have a profound and powerful effect on any form of personal or business endeavour.

When you use these seven principles in our business it will help encourage a level of passion and energy in yourselves and team members.

Lesson 1 - The importance of knowing where you are going

Every year the geese set off together already knowing the destination, for those that are new they guided by the older birds and they all set off together

Outcome
Until everyone is aligned on where you want to go you probably won't even get of the ground. Learn from those who have been there before.

Lesson 2 - The importance of working together

As each goose flaps its wings it creates an uplift for the birds that follow. By flying in a 'V' formation the whole flock adds 71 percent extra to the flying range.

Outcome
When we have a sense of community and focus, we create trust and can help each other to achieve our goals.

Lesson 3 - The Importance of Team Work

When a goose falls out of formation it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back to take advantage of the lifting power of the birds in front.

Outcome
If we had as much sense as geese we would stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

Lesson 4 - The Importance of Sharing

When a goose tires of flying up front it drops back into formation and another goose flies to the point position.

Outcome It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks. We should respect and protect each other's unique arrangement of skills, capabilities, talents and resources.

Lesson 5 - The Importance of Empathy and Understanding

When a goose gets sick, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to the ground to help and protect it.

Outcome
If we have as much sense as geese we will stand by each other in difficult times, as well as when we are strong.

Lesson 6 - The importance of knowing your limitations

The two geese will stay with a sick goose until it gets better or until it dies. If it dies it means that the remaining two geese can share the load to catch up with another flock. They could never achive this if they flew on their own.

Outcome
You are always more effective having people around you. Even if circumstances change always have someone there to support you.

Lesson 7 - The Importance of Encouragement

Geese flying in formation 'HONK' to encourage those up front to keep up with their speed.

Outcome
We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups and teams where there is encouragement, production is much greater. 'Individual empowerment results from quality honking'

I will let you know the lessons of communication from the bees in my next post

How to enhance someone's experience of life

You know that sometimes when you come to work something extraordinary happens that reminds you of why you are passionate about what you do.

Our company purpose is "to enhance people's experience of life" and I have just finished a meeting with a client that reminds me of why I am so passionate about making that happen.

When we started working with her company she was working extremely hard, had great difficulty in taking time off and the business stress was affecting her relationship. It was a good company that was limited in its ability to grow.

3 years on and with less than 2 weeks notice she was able to leave the country and spend time with her daughters in Egypt. She has also sailed around the world with her husband and is a glowing representation of someone having fun who owns a business. So what changed?

It all started with a plan, this gave the ability to put in some key metrics to measure but this doesn't sound so different. In fact they had a lot of this in place before we started working together. What was different was that they were held accountable to execute their strategy, weekly meetings happened regardless and tangble outcomes were agreed to be delivered upon and issues were brought out when they happened, and there butts got kicked if they didn't do it.

This drove stronger communication, better visibility and most important of all accountability around execution of the plan. Execution has always been the most difficult part of achievement but also the most important. Tom Peters calls it the missing 98%.

The four fundamentals things to achieve greatness and freedom in business is:

- Write down a exciting compelling goal that engages your people
- Put it in a clear plan that everyone in your business can see everyday
- Have a clear and visible system of measuring results
- Have a system of accountability

I guarentee that it is this simple but it doesn't happen overnight. This story is an example where this stuff was put in place and three years later achieving a freedom goal that she thought would take 10 years.

Have we enhanced her experience of life.....absolutely
Am I excited about it ..... absolutely

Great Ideas are not Great

I hear often of great ideas, indeed owning a business one never seems to be short of people wanting to share great ideas on what they should be doing. Well..... there are no great ideas only passionate action.

Listening to Simon Mundell present another of his fantastic seminars last night reminded me again that knowing great stuff doesn't matter a shit unless you are inspired to do something about it. I know that over 80% of the business leaders that were inspired to do something last night will have done nothing that they wrote that they would do. But what makes the others carry out their actions?

It comes back to the two biggest motivators in someone taking action which is Pleasure and Pain. The outcome either looks so incredibly attractive that they are inspired to follow through at all cost ...... or ....... the pain of the consequences of not doing it drives them so hard that they keep at it until it is done. In Karate we have a saying for this which is Osu No Seichin which literally means to push yourself and continue to perservere and do not falter until the job is done.

The missing ingredient for most failures to carry out a great idea is the lack of real accountability if the job does not get done. Next time you have a great idea share with someone you trust what you intended actions are, not the idea and ask them to hold you accountable for doing it. And ask them not to take your word for it ask them to get you to show evidence.

Within the next two weeks I am going to surprise some of those who attended and ask to see the actions they committed to and then the evidence that they have done it. I will let you know the results in due course but I am sure that you could guess the outcome. However what difference would it make if they new I was coming............?

The influence of the Internet on Marketing

The following is a summary from Stephen Lynch, the Chief Operating Officer for RESULTS.com after the Chief Marketing Officer conference in the USA last weekend

Key Ideas:

· Marketing as a function will move into a real-time model. You'll be measured on advertising and media effectiveness on a daily and weekly basis. You'll start reading it in real time and making adjustments accordingly.
· CMO has to think more broadly than just marketing if he/she is going to lead growth. For example, at Zappos customer service equals marketing. Shift focus from thinking a "marketing agenda" to "growth agenda."
· Customer service via social media (people who complain about something publicly from posting to Twitter from their PDA) works faster than going through a company's traditional customer service outlets (e.g. 800 number and email us).
· You're going to be involved in social media whether you choose to be involved with it proactively or not. Do you want to catch up and participate with it?
· Understand that it's just one giant conversation. Make social media a company-wide strategy. It's beyond just getting a Twitter account.
· Transparency is about trust with audience.
· It's important to connect with your audience. Don't market to them.
· Don't confuse "prolific" with being "successful."
· Build relationships with bloggers and it will pay off when you need their support. When you put out a promotion, the bloggers spread the word for you.
· If you think you're number one in your industry, check Google first. If you appear on Google for a general search in your category then you are tops. Those who appear top in their category often have blogs.
· Go to the bloggers first with your new product announcement. Completely avoid the traditional media. The traditional media will see the bloggers' content.
· Don't be surprised when customers have irrational responses. That's normal. Companies often only prepare for rational responses.
· Tech companies often come from this attitude of "When we're done with this product, everyone will want it." They don't consider marketing as a function. Yet the Valley is filled with examples of the best product not winning because they had a poor "go to market" strategy.

Guy Kawasaki, the author of nine books including "How to Drive Your Competition Crazy" gave tips on how CMOs can best use Twitter in their marketing efforts.

· Kawasaki says that he came late to Twitter. "I found Twitter, or should I say Twitter found me in 2007," he said. "My first reaction was that Twitter was the dumbest thing I ever saw."
· But, he quickly realized the huge potential for marketing.

Kawasaki's advice for CMOs on how to use Twitter

· Search for yourself or your company. This will let you see what people are saying about you, for good and bad, all day long.
· Not all of it is positive, but you learn as much from the negative as you do from the positive. And watch your competition too.
· Note: As a marketer you must realize that when someone slams your product 99% of the time they have not tried your product. Just send them a free sample to turn them into a fan.

New theory of marketing

· Old marketing used the theory of influencers. There are 20 people you need to suck up to.
· Today Kawasaki believes in a new theory: "The nobodies are the new somebodies." Once you turn an average Twitter critic into a fan they will Tweet to many, many more followers.
· Don't just focus on the top influencers with the most followers. "Rather than suck up, you should suck across or suck down," said Kawasaki, "Twitter allows you to do that."

Twitter lets you dump inventory

· If you've got excess inventory, give it away on Twitter as "deals." People will follow you just to see the deals you place on Twitter. It's a great way to move inventory quickly.

Prospecting: How to get followers

· Kawasaki said he only uses Twitter is a marketing platform. "I am not trying to be social or make friends," he said. "As a marketer I want to get followers."
· Inform. Don't “me-form”.
· Me-form - is "my cat just rolled over."
· Inform – is to provide content that your followers will find interesting and valuable. The goal is to have interesting links so people will Retweet you.

Other best practices

· Always be linking to great content.
· Anytime someone mentions you on twitter, respond.
· Your ultimate goal is to be Retweeted.

You cannot make everyone happy. If 10 are mad, there are probably 10,000 who love you. They are the silent majority. Do not let a tiny percent of angry people, to affect your marketing. You need to ignore them.

Kawasaki said Twitter today is what the Internet was 20 years ago. I think Twitter will be around for a long time. It's a mistake to say Twitter will not be useful for B2B. It's such a trivial thing to sign up, why not? In three years, you will say why didn't I get started earlier
http://thecmoclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/guy-kawasakis-twitter-tips-for.html

46 Secrets and Clever Strategies for dealing with the Recession

I was sent this pearl of wisdom and think it is fantastic. Take the points you need from it.

Tom Peters 46 Strategies

Tom Peters is being constantly asked for “strategies/‘secrets’ for surviving the recession.”

In his words "I try to appear wise and informed—and parade original, sophisticated thoughts. But if you want to know what’s really going through my head, see the list that follows":

Forty-six “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX*

1. You come to work earlier.
2. You leave work later.
3. You work harder.
4. You may well work for less; and, if so, you adapt to the untoward circumstanceswith a smile—even if it kills you inside.
5. You volunteer to do more.
6. You dig deep, deeper, deepest—and always bring a good attitude to work.
7. You fake it if your good attitude flags.
8. You literally practice your “game face” in the mirror in the morning, and in the loomid-morning.
9. You give new meaning to the idea and intensive practice of “visible management.”
10. You take better than usual care of yourself and encourage others to do the same—physical well-being significantly impacts mental well-being and response to stress.
11. You shrug off shit that flows downhill in your direction—buy a shovel or a“pre-worn” raincoat on eBay.
12. You try to forget about “the good old days”—nostalgia is self-destructive.(And bores others.)
13. You buck yourself up with the thought that “this too shall pass”—but then remind yourself that it might not pass any time soon, and so you re-dedicate yourself to making the absolute best of what you have now.
14. You work the phones and then work the phones some more—and stay in touch with and on the mind of positively everyone.
15. You frequently invent breaks from routine, including “weird” ones—“changeups” prevent wallowing and bring a fresh perspective.
16. You eschew all forms of personal excess.
17. You simplify.
18. You sweat the details as never before.
19. You sweat the details as never before.
20. You sweat the details as never before.
21. You raise to the sky and maintain at all costs the Standards of Excellence by which you unfailingly and unflinchingly evaluate your own performance.
22. You are maniacal when it comes to responding to even the slightest screw-up.
23. You find ways to be around young people and to keep young people around—they are less likely to be members of the “sky is falling” school.
24. You learn new tricks of your trade.
25. You pass old tricks of the trade on to others—mentoring matters now more thanever.
26. You invest heavily in your computer-Internet-Web2.0-“cloud” skills.
27. You remind yourself that this is not just something to be “gotten through”—it is the Final Exam of Competence, Character and, even if you’re not a boss, Leadership.
28. You network like a demon.
29. You network like a demon inside the company—get to know more of the folks who“do the real work,” and are/can be your most important allies when it comes togetting things done seamlessly and fast.
30. You network like a demon outside the company—get to know more of the folks“down the line,” who “do the real work” in vendor-customer outfits and can be your biggest allies and champions.
31. You thank others by the truckload if good things happen—and take the heat yourself if bad things happen.
32. You behave kindly, but you don't sugarcoat or hide the truth—humans are startlingly resilient and rumors are the real killers.
33. You treat small successes as if they were World Cup victories—and celebrate and commend accordingly.
34. You shrug off the losses (ignoring what's going on in your tummy), and get back on the horse and immediately try again.
35. You avoid negative people to the extent you can—pollution kills.
36. You eventually read the gloom-sprayers the riot act. (Gloom is the ultimate WMD ata time like this.)
37. You give new meaning to the word “thoughtful.”
38. You don’t put limits on the budget for flowers—“bright and colorful” works marvels.
39. You redouble, re-triple your efforts to “walk in your customer’s shoes.” (Especially if the shoes smell.)
40. You mind your manners—and accept others’ lack of manners in the face of their strains.
41. You are kind to all mankind.
42. You keep your shoes shined.
43. You leave the blame game at the office door.
44. You call out the congenital politicians in no uncertain terms.
45. You become a paragon of personal accountability.
46. And then you pray.

As many were quick to point out, this list works just as well in good times as in bad!

Taking a break

The old saying when the going gets tough the tough get going has certainly applied over the last year of challenging times. Sometimes as the business owners you have to roll your sleeves up and get dirty. For many this means putting in some extraordinary hours and grinding away to ensure that your company not only survives but thrives in a tough climate.

However, there comes a time when you need to refuel the tank. Working with a couple of business owners yesterday reminded me how hard we have all worked but also how hard it has been. They have come through an extremely challenging time in their business and have pulled through and are in a much stronger position now. As one of them said "We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we are sure that it not a train coming". But they look exhausted.

One of the actions this week is for them to take some time and recharge. I had to swallow this pill myself recently as I had been busy and a long time between breaks. Took a few days off and come back charged. The world won't fall down if you take one too.

What's missing from business success

I was asked this morning what I thought was more important - having an effective strategy or effective execution?



To me the answer is obvious - Doesn't matter how good your strategy is if it does not get executed properly and effective execution is only effective with a strategy. Execution isn't the best thing it is the only thing!


While creating a well-formulated strategy is vitally important for business success, the biggest challenge for most business leaders is getting their team to effectively execute their chosen strategy.


- Consider the following alarming research:
–90% of strategies fail due to poor execution
–Only 27% of employees have access to their company strategic plan
–Only 5% of employees understand their company strategy
–92% of organizations do not measure Key Performance Indicators



We have just been trialling a execution tool called execution driver and I have to say it has been fantastic in my own team becoming more egaged and accountable for better execution of our strategy. Not only does it put a big tick beside each of the above statistics it has freed me up personally to concentrate on more of the things that I am best at.



Visit http://www.executiondriver.com/



Happy executing

Karl

Do you pass the Toilet Paper Test?

You may be wondering what the Toilet paper test is? Quite simply it has two applications;

1 - Do you spend more money on personal and professional development in you lifetime than you do on Toilet Paper

2 - Do you spend more time practising and perfecting your profession than you do wiping your a*** each week.

Next time you pick up the toilet paper ask yourself where you time and money is best spent?

Enjoy your week

Karl

Replying sensibly to emails

I have spend the weekend reviewing sales letters and emails for companies and 1 thing has become quite evident in doing so.

People often provide far to much detail and don't really consider who they are sending their sales letter or email to.

golden rule of emails is your reply should reflect the original message size. ie if it is a few short words reply in a few short words. If it is 3 paragraphs provide enough detail to mirror the length of the email.

Try and understand behaivioral profiles of who you are conversing with before you reply.

Talking Brochure Salespeople

Of all of the industry's over the last few hundred years Sales has been the one that has changed the least. What is interesting is that there has been many opinions on what works and very little data.

Professor Neil Rackham conducted a massive research project of over 35,000 sales call in 12 countries over a 10 year period and found some very interesting data.

What was conclusive is that converting features to benefits is getting less and less effective. This means that Salespeople can no longer afford to be a talking brochure. With information so accessible and over 30 Billion questions getting answered on google every month sales people need to move from being a value communicator to value creators.

It is more important than ever to address this with your sales people. So what value are your salespeople creating for your clients and would your clients be prepared to write a check for their sales call.

Empowering People

One massive challenge I witness is the ability of organisations and leaders to empower their staff. Make it safe for people to make decisions. When they don't it creates bottlenecks and business can not move forward as much. Here are the only 5 questions you staff need to answer to make a decision without you.

1. Is it right for the customer?
2. Is it right for the company?
3. Is it ethical?
4. Is it something you would be willing to be held accountable for?
5. Is it consistent with the Company's values?

If the answer to all 5 is yes then - DON'T ASK - JUST DO IT

Understanding the "Core Values" of Honesty and Integrity

Often I hear that Honesty and Integrity are core values - as they should be. Would you ever Hire someone who wasn't honest or exhibited Integrity? How often though have you employed someone to be disappointed on these values.

The challenge is that you need to go to a deeper level so your people can understand what it really means in your organisation. The words are like the outer layer of an onion and you need to peel back the layers until you get to the real "core" of the definition for your company.

In our company "Live what we teach" defines Integrity for me. We have a client who is a painting contractor that has "3 coats means 3 coats". Isn't this a lot easier for his staff to understand than Integrity.

The difinitions are different for every company. What does the inside of your onion look like for Honesty and Integrity in your company.

Core Values - Honesty and Integrity

Often I see companies with "Honesty and Integrity" as core values. While these as essential elements of any company, do your people really know what they mean.

Today with your staff ask them to write down what their definition of these two values. When you have collected all the answers how many of them are the same?

The difficulty with these two words is that they mean different things to different people. So how can you align peoples behaiviour in your business or organisation when no one is clear on the definition?

Have fun with the exercise and tomorrow I will discuss what to do about it

Karl

Core Values

I was in a consultation with a company and we were discussing Values. Values are the biggest driver of peoples behaviour and every issue with people I guaranteed he could trace back to his company values.

I Challenged him pretty hard and until he understood that until all the people in his business knew the values how could their behaviour reflect them consistently. He asked if all my staff knew ours and I said yes.

He came out of the office and went up to one of my staff and asked "do you know your company values?" She said yes and he asked "what are they?".

Without skipping a beat she rattled them off like a pro!

It was fantastic and a moment that made me extremely proud – great to have a culture where our values are so alive! One of our values is "Live what we Teach"

Imagine what would happen in your business if all of your people could do that?

Before their behaivior can reflect them, do you really know what they are?

hint - they should never include the words honesty or integrity - tomorrow I will tell you why

Building on the Buzz

Last evening we ran a "Thinking Growth" seminar, in conjunction with Westpac, presenting to 88 Canterbury Businesses. One of the amazing things about it was the level of audience interaction in a group of over 100 people. That people were so engaged gives an indication of just how relevant the topic was and just how much of a need for such information is out there in the market.

Of course a few beers afterwards just cemented what was a very good networking opportunity.

Karl

Thinking Growth....Time for Action!!

There is definitely a buzz in the air at the moment and whilst not much has changed the attitudes of people we work with are! Things are much more positive and there is a real feeling that the market might just start to lift a little after a long slow winter.

Today we have our "Thinking Growth" seminar (link here) at the Holiday Inn and we have over 150 people attending from many different company's. Why the big response? Well Simon Mundell is an inspirational speaker for starters and as a Director of Results.Com is passionate about what we do. On top of that I think it is just the positive attitudes out there. Business owners are now feeling it is the right time to do something different that will really kick start their business and position it to take full advantage of the economic recovery.

Hope to see you there.

Karl

The Layers Of Complexity

Working with different Business Leaders and Company owners everyday means I hear about their challenges and frustrations. One common theme is the growing layers of complexity they face each day in their business. There are a number of contributing the factors to this. Firstly the complexity (red tape) that large company's seem to drown their team leaders in. Complying with the requirements of the parent organisation can actually dictate much of the days work and hugely reduce productivity. Who reads these reports? Why is the ability to make decisions not pushed down to the managers on the job so they can be made and dealt with?

Complexity caused by growth is also a common issue. All businesses experience added complexity as they add client numbers, staff numbers, different products or enter new markets. The challenge is to get these company's focused, efficient and their leaders free from daily clutter so they can work on their businesses. It is the evolution of all organisations that as they grow and evolve so too does complexity and this requires new systems and an awareness of the likely problems that will present and tools to overcome them.

Whilst solutions to these issues are also varied the main focus should be on ensuring leaders int he organisation have the delegation and authority to make decisions as they need to rather than having to create a bottleneck by having to push them up the chain. Having simple team KPI's, measuring the numbers that are important to the lifeblood of the business and focusing the whole team onto some simple relevant quarterly goals is essential.

Of course the fact a business is growing in itself is good news.....making it fly is just gold!!

Karl

Follow The Money

"Historically, smart people have always turned to where the money was. Today, money is turning to where the smart people are." Financial Times

Karl

We need your opinion

I'd appreciate it if you could take part in this one question opinion poll;

Will the world economy lift initially only to drop again below where we are at currently in Aug 09? (link)

Role Playing

It seems odd when we look at it in isolation.....but why do Sales Managers let their people practise their trade on actual clients? In most other fields there is training and role playing in preparation for the real thing. In the military they train for years before being sent into the fray, the Police role play hundreds of scenarios before putting officers on the beat (and then with a mentor), Bus drivers practise before they do a schedule....in fact they do a license! Firemen train and role play, teachers role play......and so it goes on!!

So tell me again why sales people do not role play.....practising to identify personality types and then their approach based on the personality type of the person they are talking to, knowing the 7-9 reasons a prospect will give them "not to buy their product" and know how to counter these. Beats me....most sales people do a product familiarisation course when they join a company and then get sent on the road...as if they have some divine power to sell!!

Beats me

Karl

Sins of Sales...By Jack Daly

Jack Daly is passionate about what he calls the "Sins of Sales". Don't do it he said....no yelled at us! Here they are;

1. Having a Managing Director double hatting as the Sales Manager.
2. Taking the best sales person you have and making them the Sales Manager, and the worst
3. Taking the best sales person you have and making them the Sales Manager whilst they continue to service their client book.

Don't do it. ....Sales Managers have one role....developing and supporting Sales People!

Are you a sinner?

Karl

Touch Systems: Worth their Weight in Gold

If there was one thing Jack Daly got across in Auckland it was the value of having a formal touch system in your company. One that ties in with data bases but allows for reaching out and touching past, present and future clients (and people of influence who champion your business) with a personalised card, note or whatever you choose. Just do it Jack says!

Being unique from from your voice mail to after sales follow up means you remain top of mind and become part of a conversation or a referral. Hand written cards or personalised notes are gold in an age of e-mail and printers. A quick hand written card gets placed on a desk or in a prominent place and keeps on selling the message.

It also builds trust and people do business with those they like and trust....simple as that. Selling is the the transfer of trust. So try it.....one of the team here got a call from a prominent business owner yesterday thanking him for his follow up card and note after a meeting. Do you think that person will mention it to others? You bet!

Karl

"Straight Talking Through the Universe"

One of the values at Results.com we live by is "Straight Talk". This involves having the courage to be honest and tell people how it is. We encourage it amongst the team as we bounce ideas, discuss decisions, offer feedback about an individuals style, presentation or when we are peer reviewing client interaction.

Straight talk needs to exist in a culture where there will be no consequence for being honest and telling how it is. I think an organisation that can challenge anyone in the company in a safe and constructive way has more robust decisions. The team also knows they will be challenged if they are not achieving goals and likewise can challenge others.

Think about it. Hows your culture?

Karl

Getting Stuck In...!!

As another week screams to a close what have I learnt? Most of the businesses I come across have the same issues time and again. Namely lack of sales, lack of accountability, a bottleneck with the owner and concerns around how to make the business get some traction in this market.

Across my team it is the same with those they are working with.....accountability (setting realistic targets, getting buy in from those who need to hit them and then holding them accountable when they don't!), measuring KPI's, Planning, internal communications (the right info to the right people in the company), having a unique point of difference on which the business bases marketing and sales pitch and most of all the bottleneck that the Owner of the company causes....because all key decisions have to come to them.

It is time for some time out before we roll our sleeves up next week and get stuck in again.

Karl

Sales Tips- Thanks Jack Daly

Right now getting more sales is the number one priority for company's we work with right now. Here are a few tips Jack Daly offered;

• Be unique- from reception to voice mail.
• Never make a call without a purpose.
• Ask questions and listen.
• Selling is the transfer of trust.
• Never quote until you establish value.
• Goals not in writing are dreams.
• People like to buy, not be sold. Help them buy.
• Trust trumps price all day.
• Things that get measured get done.
• The best sales people don't wing it.
• Model the masters. learn from the best.
• People are different. Sell accordingly.
• We are what we think we are. Raise the bar.

So what are you going to do differently? The same things produce the same results.

Karl

The aftermath: Jack Daly

As alluded to last week our day with Jack Daly really left me with some fantastic learning's. After 8 hours of drinking from the proverbial fire hydrant of high impact learning I have reflected on quite a few things.

Sales people are a certain type of person and right now critical to the lifeblood of any business. One thing this recession has changed is their role from order taker back to sales representative...i.e. they have to work for and make the sale rather than have the customer walk in and give an order.

Sales Managers are again having to develop and train sales representatives. One of the big sins in business today is the Managing Director/Sales Manager double role. Sales Managers should also not be making too many sales if their focus is on training and developing their people.

How many sales teams today incorporate daily in house training or role playing? How many list the 8-10 main excuses or reasons clients don't buy from them and role play the ways to counter these? Not many I suggest......most let their sales team train in real time on real potential clients!!

Karl

Jack Daly: Learning From the Market Leader

What a day last Friday was. Results.Com brought Jack Daly down under from the USA to speak to the team and clients about Sales, Sales Management, leadership and developing culture.....and what a day it was, full on and full of information, learnings and real life examples.

Pictured here (with Peter Macdonald and myself), Jack has owned and grown multi million dollar, fast growth company's. His dedication the sales training, ongoing skill assessment and development and his belief in growing a strong organisational culture left us all frantically taking notes. You can find out more about Jack at this link http://www.jackdaly.net/.

What a day and I'm now looking forward to delivering some of the learnings to those we are working with in Christchurch.

Karl

Making it Safe For Staff to Discuss Things

I have always believed that the test of a healthy work place is whether or not your staff can talk freely about decisions, offer ideas or improvements etc without fear of retribution. Don't get me wrong here because decisions ave to be made by the leaders and once it has been made the team should adopt it as their own.

I'm talking about robust discussion, input to the big decisions and feeling like they are part of the team to the extent that they can offer ideas or improve current systems in place. After all those actually doing the hands on graft know what works and what doesn't.......this builds on the adage that people are not a business's biggest asset, their skills are!

Here at Results.Com the team are free to challenge me or anyone else and speak freely. This does not come without a need to swallow some pride or eat a bit of humble pie, but it certainly makes for a great culture and adds to the decision making and accountability of the overall team.

Karl

The Hardest Things For a Business Owner to Grasp?

It is the realisation that they need to step aside and get out of the way of the growth of their business. It is coming to terms with the reality that they are restricting their own business growth by being slow to change and evolve, by not seeing the extra skills their team can offer, that they are indeed the No 1 bottleneck in the company taking that next big step!

Now that's a challenge for anyone let alone a persona who grew the company from scratch, has a large amount of emotional attachment and passion......it is reality though!

Karl

Guess What? Growing a Team takes focused Effort

I ran a workshop today about “How to grow a Powerful Productive Team”. It was well attended and a really interactive session. The one thing that I took away from it was that businesses across the board need more  from their teams and in order to get them to deliver that bigger output some basic things need to be in place....namely core values, KPI’s for each key team member or function and accountabilities. Working out what to stop doing is also key to free up time.

Karl

Execution is what the AB's lack!

Like many things in the world, you can have all the theory and motivation in the world but actually putting it into an execution plan and adjusting to conditions takes a lot of skill. We see it in business and we saw it yesterday with the All Blacks. Good tactics theory, good training and then poor execution. Get it right and they will achieve extra ordinary results. Keep getting it wrong and they will just be another average team!

Of course it is easy to be critical from the couch, not so easy when you have 140kgs of Afrikaner breathing down your neck!

Karl

Poll

I'd love you to hit this link and give us some feedback in a Poll about Business needs. It will take 1 minute.

Thanks

Karl

Congratulations to The George Hotel

The George Hotel has been voted No 2 in New Zealand and No1 in the South Island in the new category of the top 20 city hotels in Australia and New Zealand in the recent best Hotel survey in international "Travel and Leisure" magazine.

We really enjoy working with the team at the George Hotel and particularly their commitment to being the best at what they do.

Karl

Living What We Teach

As a Practise we strive to live what we teach, in fact it is one of our core values. We measure our relevant KPI's to help drive the business and we hold each associate accountable for their "piece in the pie".

One of our main measures is to ensure our clients meet their quarterly goals because this is important for them and it ensures we as a team are adding maximum value to their team. To make this a robust process we peer review each clients quarterly goal for relevance in the yearly goal and in the 3-5 year plan. We also check that it is achievable, measurable and challenging.

Living what we teach is an important core value of Results.Com.

Karl

Weekly Meetings

Weekly meetings are the life blood of any business and yet so many do not bother. Of course the secret is to have a meeting agenda that is short, holds people accountable, discusses the important things, allows decisions to be made and doesn't sap the will of you staff to live!! A two hour marathon just isn't needed!!

Try it and get Results.

Karl

Where is the Pain?

Right now Canterbury Business owners are looking at how they can survive a prolonged decrease in revenue. In a lot of cases the hard decisions to cut staff or overheads has been left too late and now there are not so many options as they could have had a few months ago as part of a planned approach.

On average it seems that revenue across most industries has declined by 30-40% and it is likely the market recovery is going to be slow. So how do you operate and grow in a consumers market where your competitors are competing on price? How do you get more productivity from less staff? How do you ensure marketing is effective given the fact you have a far smaller advertising budget?

Now the bad news.......there is no magic bullet that will solve this. It takes a good long term strategy, well targeted short and medium terms goals, a focused offering to the market with a unique point of difference and it takes good communication, staff 90 day goals, accountability across the company and measurement of the relevant KPI's.

That takes skill and planning and the real value is being able to execute these things and make them happen rather than simply come up with a plan.

Take some action and make it happen. Oh and have fun.....it is too easy to get lost in the doom & stress.

Karl

Excuses are Crap!

One thing we face each day as we assist Business Owners to execute their Business Plan is the inevitable round of excuses. Lets face it as a Business Owner there are a thousand things going on and lots of white noise that can detract from the real issues. So how do we get around this? Quite simply we hold them accountable for their own plan. We confront reality and we tell them how it is.....novel I know!!

Another reality for Business Owners is that sometimes they never hear the truth.....sure they get well meaning watered down reports or feedback from loyal staff but sometimes when we work through the issues facing a company the reality is the main blockage or bottleneck slowing progress is.....you guessed it the actual owner. They need to know this, the reasons why and be shown how to get out of the way of their own business. Of course with many personalities this needs to be done in the most productive way.....but it needs to be direct, give the facts and be honest! If a business can functon perfectly well without the owner then thats added value, makes it sellable and more valuable.

On another note I'm glad Mr Weatherston was found guilty yesterday. An appalling crime that deserves an appallingly long Prison sentence.

Karl

What does your Brand promise?

The Brand Promise you give to the market is pretty fundamental. It is really what your brand stands for. Of course it ties in with the core values and vision I have discussed in previous blogs. If you get this right and can back it up with tangible evidence or facts that your company is delivering then it becomes powerful and adds value to your brand......if you have a valuable brand then you have a valuable investment!

The Results.Com Brand Promise is "We engage all of your people and deliver extraordinary results". I'm not saying this is the best or the most powerful but if you take into account that independent research is conducted regularly then it comes to life. As at Feb 09 our clients average annual revenue growth was 26%.......down from over 40% the previous year but still extraordinary in the face of the biggest recession since World War Two. Add to this we are now entering the recovery phase so our clients are going to be well placed to ride the lift!

If you have the research independently carried out and verified then its pretty powerful isn't it?

So what is your brand promise?

Karl

Vision- Kennedy proved a point!

40 years after landing on the moon it is timely to reflect upon this achievement. President John F. Kennedy had a powerful vision in the very early 60's when he stated that the intention of the USA was "to land a man on the moon and successfully bring him home by the end of the decade" (or words to that effect).

Now love him or hate him the amazing thing was that when he made that statement the technology for such feat did not exist. But achieve it they did.....politics and cold war mongering aside, this was impressive and you can only imagine how brave those early astronauts were! Of course the spin off from the space program has been huge in many ways- new technology, new inventions (air conditioning, navigation systems, food, rocket engines, fuels and of course an interesting toilet system!).

The power of vision or as Jim Collins likes to call it "a Big hairy Audacious Goal" is incredible and if it is time bound, measurable, achievable and stretches a team then it really come to life. Get the Core Values right and the Vision and you are on the road to extraordinary results.

Karl (see our website)

Core Values- More than a List!

Core Values are things that many organisations tend to list, frame and hang on the wall. True Core Values are lived daily in the Company and are referred to used continuously. Staff are recruited from them, appraisals are done from them and if required staff are dismissed if they breach one of them.

Our Core Values at Results.Com are;

• People First
• Go the extra mile
• Live what we teach
• Abundance mentality
• Make a difference
• Passion for learning
• Straight talk

Our Core Purpose: To enhance peoples experience of life.

What are yours? and what do you do with them? Are they alive in the organisation? Why are they important?

Karl (see our website)

Results.Com

Many people ask us what we do? Many think we are one of the many Business Coaching organisations that seem to tout their wares around the town. Well we are not Coaches....we grow businesses, we provide Business Execution Strategy's for those we work with that allow them to grow. We transform business potential into extraordinary results. Our team delivering these results are Business Execution Specialists with a variety of backgrounds, experience and qualifications.

Even more excitingly as a company we are developing and will soon launch a variety of new services and options that will allow organisations to easily work with us in a way that best suits their requirements.

Currently and in this challenging economic environment our clients are growing and on average are achieving 26% revenue growth (*Perspective Insight (Independent Client Research) Annual survey Feb 09).

Karl (see our website)

Checking in With Reality

As we work one on one with business owners to grow their businesses we get to see their many and varied challenges. One learning that we have as a team in our own business is to constantly check our systems against reality. It is very easy to add more complexity to a company when what is really needed is a simple tweak to the current process to get better results or information. New systems for the sake of them do not save time. Checking reality with the desired outcome is all that is required to see is a system is performing.

Each business we work with has a different structure, industry, market and their own unique financial and management challenges and whilst there are similarities in the evolution of each business a universal approach to growth does not work. Likewise the owner operator has differing needs than a larger company with a management team. One common theme is that all business owners experience the isolation of leading. Sometimes the network we provide by getting our clients together regularly or by simply listening to their issues, gives that sounding board they need to re energise and overcome the latest challenge.

Karl (hit our website)

Never Mind The Pain...!

Every day I am meeting with Canterbury Business owners looking to improve things.....never mind the pain lets just get on with it is the attitude! Presently we seem to have a consensus from the economists (well as good as you can expect) that the economy is kicking along the bottom and we can expect to see things improve slowly over the next 12-18 months.

The smart operators right now are preparing to take advantage of that lift....if its going to be a small & drawn out lift in the market then we all need to be focused and poised for growth. That means honing in on your target market, careful marketing, making sure debtors are under control, staff are focused, the sales team is actively hunting for sales (not taking orders....big difference!) and celebrating the successes when they happen. In other words you need to be ready to lead your market to really reap the rewards.

I am seeing more business owners seeking advice from us on implementation of these key drivers in their business.....after all that's what we do...."We grow Businesses".

Talk soon

Karl (hit our website)

Wacko Jacko

Here's the thing, i actually liked Michael Jackson. For all his weirdness, insecurities, strange family, attitude to kids.....put all that aside and look at his music and wow....a real point of difference. His voice, energy in dance....lets face it skills on the dance floor even! What a brand and what earning potential.

So what went wrong, why was he so heavily in debt? Put into business context you have to ask what his 10-15 year goal was? Did he really use his obvious points of difference in a positive way? Why was the "Michael Jackson" brand replaced by the "Wacko Jacko" brand? There is also the begging question as to whether he really had the right advisers, employees with skills and were they all working towards the big goal?

So as we watch the media frenzy unfold and we are fed the edited version of what happened in his life and watch his bank accounts fill up to the brim "post humously" it is always healthy to look at why his business model did not work and remember his positive aspects...the song and dance he gave the world.

Karl (see our website)

Time to Get Serious and real!

Right now as the NZ economy kicks along the bottom of the recession cycle there are strong signs of the early buds of recovery (see link). This is good news after a particularly tough time for all industries but it begs the question......what is your strategy in order to position your business to really dominate your market and reap the rewards of recovery.

There is no doubt that despite the doom in the media, recession really is a time of opportunity for those that choose to seize it. Now is the time to complete your strategy and execute some focused action in order to get the team and the plan honed to really make the most of the opportunity as the market resets. Lets face it...the same old plan will get the same old results!

Last night we held a seminar called "Think Growth, Simplify Your Business". The evening, sponsored by Westpac and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, saw owners and representatives from 76 Canterbury based businesses attend and take part in an interactive presentation. The focus of the evening was to emphasis the importance of getting the key drivers in your business right.....Strategy, Cash, People, Execution. Get these four things right and watch your business take off.....now thats positive!

If you need some advice with any of these things give us a call......its what we do at Results.Com....We Grow Businesses.

Have a fun day

Karl (See our website)

The Perfect Employee 100%-Yeh Right!

One of the absolute bottlenecks we tend to find when working with Business Owners are the inevitable and sometimes ongoing issues they have with staff. Reality is issues relating to staff performance are usually time consuming, not pleasant or avoided totally. At best this means inefficiencies and at worst it means money straight off the bottom line for the business in question and lets face it things are tight across all industries in this economic climate.

I'm not going to go into the necessity for living company values, clear goals, well written and measurable job descriptions in this blog because each of these are important in their own right. What I do want to put across are the benefits of using a profiling tool as part of the recruitment process. If you are not using a tool of some kind then you are flying blind. The changes in the market now mean that as opposed to 12 months ago when good applicants were hard to find, now there are many more looking for work so getting someone good should be easy right? Well in many cases we get it wrong!!

Most employers in small & medium sized businesses tend to be the owners (and doing many roles). Time restraints mean one, perhaps two interviews are the norm. If you get an applicant to spend an additional 15 minutes completing an online profile then you can quickly get a wealth of information that will outline suitability for the job. There are many such tools available however the best we have found are the EDisc Profiling tool. 

Put simply if you throw one of these into the selection process you will greatly improve your chances of getting the right person for the job! Do some research and ask those that use such tools for feedback.

Karl (see our website)

Not knowing What You Don't Know!

There is always an element of comfort when a business owner has owned and operated their company for a number of years. Not taking away the fact that it takes a huge amount of skill and perseverance to own a company built from scratch and to operate it profitably in a constantly changing environment! Many I meet make a lot of their key business decisions based on what they think is going on rather than the what data shows them.

One of the cornerstones of Results.Com is that as an organisation we base all our research and business best practise teachings on hard data. Opinions are like armpits.....we all have them, but when you can actually drill down into a problem part of your business and see actual figures, or measure actual outcomes achieved then you can make sound decisions. Now this does not have to be complicated, in most cases we are talking about making key figures visible so that trends can be monitored.

There is much that flows on from this practise such as having an ability to hold key employees accountable for their roles and goals, making sound decisions about overheads, budgets and of course the peace of mind of knowing that you are on track.

It is healthy to take a deep breath and step back from your business in order to challenge what it is you are trying to achieve and where you sit in the bigger picture. This means being open minded enough to accept constructive challenges to the way you go about things.

So really not knowing what you don't know is only an issue if you never take time to find out and if don't continue to learn and grow!

Karl (see our website)

It is Important to Celebrate Success

One of the pleasures of being a part of Results.Com is being able to share in the many successes of our clients and their achievements.

Mega Advertising (based in Ferrymead, Christchurch) has been working with us for nine exciting months. Mega's big goal is to be the number one Branding Specialist in the world. The focus of the last nine months has been to focus on building the culture of the business whilst increasing revenue and profitability.

Managing Director Phillippa Jacobs can now not only boast a 46% increase in revenue but a 50% increase in profitability in this period.

On top of that she is a Finalist in the upcoming National Business Woman's Awards being held in Auckland on 24 June 2009. You can read more about her amazing company by hitting the website. In a time of ongoing recession it is fantastic to be able to work with Business Owners actively growing their revenue.

It is also important that we celebrate success when and where possible.....after all it is supposed to be fun!

Karl (hit our website)

You can not align people without a common direction

Imagine that your business is a life raft in the middle of the ocean, you as the business leader knows what direction you want to go and are paddling as hard as you can in that direction. The others on the raft know where they want to go and start paddling in thier direction. In disbelief you look at the others in the raft questioning why they can not see the direction you are heading in and why are they not paddling in that same direction. Indeed some may even be paddling in the opposite direction. In frustration some of them may stop paddling as hard as then can, not because they are not capable but because they get disengaged.
The busisness leaders is also aware that with limited provisions for voyage there is an urgency that others do not seem to share. And so they paddle harder. This appears to be happening in some businesses right now.

If this is your life raft what do you believe the outcome will be?

You may get to where you want to go but will it be in the fastest time possible by the quickest route?

Alignment and Engagement of your people become the two most important factors for your success

So, at some stage the business leaders need to step up and sell a story of the direction they want to head or else you they invarible head in circles.

Do you increase your chances of success if the story involves your people? You betcha!

Business is exactly like this analagy.

Do your staff know your direction?
Do your Staff know your vision?
Does it invlove your people?
Do they see it everyday?

If you answered 'No' to any of the above then immediately address this and create a clear and compelling long term goal that stretches beyond your current capabilities that will align all of your people.

Here is the real magic though. When you create this long term stretch Goal that can bring together businesses as well as your people it becomes a lot easier. When you share with your clients and your suppliers they all go "Hey I like that! It is where I would like to go too."

Overnight Business will become a lot easier.

If you are asking yourself "How do I do this?" Try starting with asking your people after all who will do the work to get you there?

Enjoy the Recovery

Where is the real problem with Businesses?

Right now if you are not investing in the people of your business (including yourself) I absolutely guarantee that you will not be the one best positioned for this recovery.

It is not rocket science get the right people, get them doing the right things and make sure those things are done right. It may sound like it is a whole lot easier to say than do, but really it does not need to be.

Your challenge is if you have not addressed incompetencies. If you’re thinking that you have incompetent people in your organization then the first problem to address is yourself. It would be extremely unlikely that you have employed incompetent people and if you have then obviously you have been an incompetent and reckless employer. If you need to fire anyone fire yourself from this role.

I can not accept that someone would start a job with the intention of destroying a business so when an employee gets disengaged ask yourself “how have I contributed to the issue?” I passionately believe that people by nature want to do a good job. I am still constantly amazed when employers complain about an employee and when you help them peel back the onion they identify the issue usually always begins with them.

Make sure what you want to achieve in your business can engage and align your people. Then share with your people what you want to achieve with your business and share what you achieve with your business with your people.

You will know when you get this right when someone congratulates you on a successful business and the only thing you are able to say is “All I did was provide a vision for an amazing group of people to come together and achieve some extraordinary results.”

Right now invest the most of your resources in your people as they are the opportunity for the greatest gains. Bang for buck your people will always be your greatest opportunity to make money. So knowing that your people are the most important thing in your business (reality check it was never your customers) does it not make sense to invest in your most valuable asset?

If you have already done this enjoy the recovery.