Is there a secret to success? The beginning entrepreneur would surely hope so, but it’s not quite the case. Actually, a study performed by the Harvard Business School — The Evergreen Project — found it “doesn’t matter what you do.” The study uncovered that successful companies all employed the same management practices.
These practices included (and I paraphrase):
The development and maintenance of flawless operational strategies
Clearly defined strategies and a thorough understanding of your ideal client
Nurturing employees and holding them to high standards of performance
Simplification of the business management levels aka bureaucracy
Hiring talented employees and helping them develop those talents even further
Being innovative and keeping up with trends
Being a great leader
Check this list and see how many of the practices you’re employing in your business.
Business owners wear many hats and one of those hats is “Sales Person.” If you dreamed of becoming a business owner and not having to be involved in sales, chances are you received a rude awakening. In business, we are always selling if we want to grow and thrive.
Here are the steps I believe are involved in the life cycle of a sale:
The all important prospecting. If you’re not out meeting people and working to make connections and grow your business, it will perish. You need to go where your ideal clients gather, build relationships and begin the cycle of prospecting.
Identify the needs of the potential client. Remember, it’s not a one size fits all approach. You need to listen to what your potential client has to say, understand his or her pain points and see if you have a solution to them.
The better you understand the issues facing your client, the better you will be able to tailor a solution. You need to delve deep and understand how your mousetrap will help them and how it’s better than the mousetrap they’re using today.
Once you’ve decided to work together, you will need to make a commitment and that will likely involve a contract of understanding. “You will provide me this and I will provide you that.” Make sure everything is transparent so you will have a good working relationship from the onset.
The next time you put on your Sales Person hat, keep these steps in mind.
You’re known by your logo or brand, right? Perhaps. In some cases (think Nike or Kodak) that is true. In other cases, if you’re just starting out you may still be tweaking your brand or logo and may want to change it from its original form. In other instances, if you’ve been in business for some time and are now taking the business in a new direction or adding new goods, services or products, it might be time to rebrand to reflect the new direction.
What should prompt a rebrand or a new logo? Here are three reasons to consider one:
Your business model has changed and a new logo would reflect that. Also, if the business management team has changed, you may want a new logo to set yourself apart with a new identity.
If you are taking your business in a new direction and targeting a new audience a new logo or brand identification might make sense.
If your old logo simply looks tired or the colors look dated, you might want to freshen it up with new colors. Say, for example when you started out you used a typewriter for your business and have since (hopefully long since) moved to performing your tasks on a computer!
You can also use your new brand relaunch as a way to garner social media traffic!
When you decided to go into business for yourself, you wanted to be a success — everyone begins with that dream, right? Building momentum toward business greatness can be accomplished in any number of ways. Keep in mind that when you build momentum in any area of your business or personal life, you feel like you’re operating at a higher level than you were in the past.
How can you create momentum? Here are three tips:
Be focused on your goal and its outcome. It’s sometimes easy to lose sight of long-term goals, especially if you’re presented with a bright, new product or service or opportunity. If this happens, you need to look at it with a critical eye and see if it fits into your overall business plan and vision.
Be intense in your ability to get things done. Your passion for your business should help your intensity. If you’re not passionate about what you do, why are you doing it?
Give yourself a timeline and a deadline. Having a vague goal of, “I want more customers” will not propel you toward any achievable goal simply because you haven’t given it anything measurable. Consider this, “I want 10 more customers per month than I did the month previous.” This is a measurable and perhaps achievable goal.
Building momentum is crucial to business success as it helps keep you challenged and motivated toward a specific goal!
As we prepare to attend Piscine Global in France, we get to thinking about how to make the most of any conference you’re planning to attend, whether it’s one in your own backyard or one on another continent.
Here are our best tips for making the most of your attendance at a conference:
Spend time with the brochure prior to showing up at the conference site. Print out the brochure or conference schedule. Note which sessions you want to attend, why and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Write questions to prompt yourself to either ask them during the session or to ask them after if the speaker doesn’t address them.
Attend the before and after conference events. Many conferences host breakfasts prior to the sessions opening and these are great for getting to know other attendees. After conference events are also great for mixing and mingling and will likely put you in the same room and within chatting distance of the speakers.
Once you get back from the conference, follow up with the people you met there. Send an email, follow up with a phone call, write a blog post. Don’t let the excitement and the information you gleaned from your conference attendance fade away. Keep it alive by after-conference networking.
What will you do to make sure you get a return on your investment from your next conference attendance?
Think back to the last networking event you attended. Did you walk away with a fistful of business cards? Did you hand out business cards to those you met? Even in today’s electronic age, there are many venues in which your good, tried and true business card will be your best “giveaway” when you meet someone.
How can you make your business card memorable and keep it out of the trash can or shoved, forgotten, in the back of a drawer? Here are three items I believe are crucial to have on your card:
Your company logo and/or a photo of yourself (if you have a good one). You don’t want to clutter the card with a lot of wording but if you have a memorable logo, it should be part of the card. Putting your photo on the card helps make you more memorable as well, especially when you consider that if an individual receives a dozen or more cards having a “face with the name” may make it easier to make a connection following the event.
Don’t forget to have your contact information on the card. Don’t force an acquaintance to go to your website then search for a Contact Us section. Make it easy to be contacted by having your name, phone number and email on the card.
Make use of the base of the card. If you are a service provider, list your services on the back of the card. Add your social media handles there. If you’re an author put a thumbnail of your book cover there. It is valuable real estate if you use it wisely.
Do you still use business cards? If you don’t, how do you gather contact information at networking events?
sessions you want to attend, why and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Write questions to prompt yourself to either ask them during the session or to ask them after if the speaker doesn’t address them.