CLONE YOURSELF!

One of the key distinctions between creating your own job
and building a business is the ability to hire other people
to work for you and in some cases, do your work for you.
Most professionals run their "practice" as a business for
tax and accounting reasons, but in fact they have a job
they have created for themselves. They may enjoy being
their own boss, but they still have to show up and do their
work in order to get paid. That's one definition of a "job."
Increasingly, professionals are training others to do much
of what they used to do themselves. Attorneys use legal
assistants, and physicians are delegating more and more
work to both nurses and the relatively new profession of
"PA's" - Physician Assistants. The most successful sales
professional I know has a personal staff of four people who
work for HER, not for her employer. (Important
distinction!) In many cases, her staff can close sales even
if she is on vacation. Her commissions continue while she
is on the beach!
Successful business people learn to delegate. They hire
experts who can strengthen and diversify the office. They
understand that training and leading a team will always be
more profitable than doing it all yourself.
Learn to delegate and to train and supervise others. The
key to building your business is almost never "doing" more;
it's hiring and supporting great people.

THE CARE AND KEEPING OF CUSTOMERS

The first question of any business is to understand WHAT
business you are in.
Most people think McDonald's is in the restaurant or
hamburger business, but many analysts through the years
have observed that they are actually in a variety of
businesses. They are in the real estate development
business. They are in the entertainment business. And most
of all, they are in the customer service business.
Every business is first, last, and always in the business
of providing superior service to its customers.
It costs a fortune to attract a new customer. The time,
money, energy, anxiety and effort to get a new first-time
customer in the door is a huge expense. No business has the
resources to attract and serve only new customers. The key
to profits is in keeping and serving the customers you
already have.
Some studies show that it costs up to 85 times more money
to get a new customer than to make an additional sale to an
existing customer.
No matter what other business you are in, your first
business is in keeping and serving and partnering with your
customers. It's called customer retention. Sometimes it's
called "up-selling". It goes by many names, but the
principle is the same: Nurture and keep your customers!
Customer service is about reliability and it's about
relationship. It's about trust. It's about the quality of
your product, but even more, it's about the quality of your
service before, during and long after the sale.

THE TIME FOR PLANTING IS NOW!

Last week I had the privilege of being invited to an
exclusive meeting with a number of leading business people
here in Dublin. 
What struck me was the degree to which these highly
successful people were focused on using the summer to position
themselves and their businesses in the months ahead. They
all assumed three things:
1. The economy is going to rebound quickly and dramatically
in the next few months, and they wanted to take advantage of that.
2. Most of their competitors were "sleeping or on vacation"
as one gentlemen phrased it, and.
3. Now is the time to get ready for the economic boom ahead.
Those who wait until the recovery arrives will be too late to participate.
They had lots of reasons for their optimism, from economic
statistics to "gut feelings", but they were essentially
unanimous that now is the time to prepare to make money in
the months ahead. True, the money won't actually arrive
until next year, but the time to boost inventory, hire the
right people, launch marketing campaigns and prepare is NOW.
What do you need to do NOW to grow your business in the
months ahead? If you KNEW that your best customers would
want more of your goods and services in 2004, what would
you do to get ready? My sense is that this is the time for
planting, the time for preparation, the time to get ready.
I believe it was Vince Lombardi who observed that "everyone
has the will to win. What is unusual is the will to prepare
to win." NOW is the time for planting seeds; the harvest
will come in due course.

ARE YOU ATTEMPTING A CHANGE?

Any change, or even an attempt to change anything you are doing, makes you uncomfortable. Have you ever felt out of your comfort zone by attempting to change? Has change ever made you experience stress and tension? If the change is too extreme, your physical and mental health can be affected. You will experience sleeplessness, indigestion, or fatigue. You may react with impatience, irritability or anger. You will often feel as if you are on an emotional roller-coaster.

Raise Your Internal Standards

So if you want to sell more and earn more, you must increase your self-concept level of income. You must increase the amount you believe yourself capable of earning. You must raise your aspirations, set higher goals, and make detailed plans to achieve them. You must begin to see yourself and think about yourself as capable of being one of the highest earning salespeople in your field. You must take charge of developing a new self-concept for sales and income that is more consistent with what you really want to accomplish.

Build Your Self-Concept Level of Income

Your self-concept determines your levels of performance and effectiveness in everything you do. In sales, you have a series of mini-self-concepts that govern every activity of selling. You have a self-concept for prospecting, for using the telephone, for cold calling, for making appointments, for qualifying, for presenting, for answering questions, for closing, for getting referrals, and for making follow-up sales. You have a self-concept of your level of product knowledge, your personal management skills, your level of motivation and for the way that you relate to different types of customers. In every case, you will always perform in a manner consistent with your self-concept.

The Key to Peak Performance

Wherever you have a high self-concept, you perform well. If you enjoy working on the telephone, you look forward eagerly to telephone prospecting and selling and you do it well. If you have a high self-concept for making presentations or for closing sales, you feel comfortable and competent whenever you are doing them.

Wherever you feel tense or uneasy in selling, it means that you have a low self-concept in that area. You do not feel comfortable when you are engaged in that activity. You probably avoid that activity as much as possible.

This is normal and natural. The only question is, What are you going to do about it?

Action Exercises

Here are two actions you can take immediately to get better results.

First, set a goal today to become one of the highest earning people in your field. Then, back your goal with action by committing to becoming very good in every area of selling.

Second, see yourself, imagine and visualize yourself as if you are already very good at what you do. Create within yourself the feeling of success and accomplishment.

THINK YOUR WAY TO THE TOP!

The longer I studied highly successful business leaders,
the more I see the distinction between those who understand
the REAL source of wealth, and those who think merely in
terms of sales and profits.
Recently, a television news show did a story about a
software company in South Carolina where the owner
understands that "my most important assets walk out the
door every night (they go home), and my most important job
is to be sure they all walk back in tomorrow morning."
I love that!
He understood that while plants and equipment and brand
recognition and marketing ALL play a critical role, in the
end it's our people and how well they THINK that determines
our long-term success. High achievers invest in themselves,
their training, and in taking time to think clearly.
Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, talked
about the need for leaders to "out-think" the competition.
Bill Gates takes time away to think, renew and reflect
every quarter. So should you! You cannot lead if you do
not maintain a clearer vision and a stronger sense of
direction than your employees AND your competition! If you
are lost in the swamp of daily crises, you will see neither
the golden opportunities nor the fatal threats to your
success.
You MUST "out-think", out-strategize and out-maneuver both
your competition, and the thinking of the past. As we
emerge from this economic slow-down, the next boom will NOT
be led by the companies or the methods of the past.

NETWORKING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

There's an old saying that "it's who you know that counts",
and for better or worse, it's often true.
Yes, there is a cynical aspect to the phrase, referring to
favoritism that is unfortunate. More often, however,
people get the referral or the promotion precisely because
(in a positive sense) of "who they know". Knowing and
liking someone does make a difference.
When it comes to networking, however, I've noticed two
unfortunate patterns that are generally NOT helpful:
First is the person (to be honest, it's usually a male) who
views networking as some strange contest to see who can
trade the most business cards in the shortest period of
time. There's a manic, phony energy that is a huge turn-
off. Their quick handshake, exaggerated smile and exchange
of business cards is usually a waste of time.
The second is the person who attends networking functions
but fails to connect in a meaningful way. Often they spend
the entire time chatting with a friend, and leave without
meeting anyone new, or making any lasting impressions.
Effective networking means connecting with a few people in
an honest, sincere way that suggests you would like to help
them if you can, and would appreciate the other person's
support in exchange.
Get to know people. Call them up, go to lunch, and if
appropriate, certainly exchange business cards! But what
you're looking for is a relationship. Get to know a few
people well, rather than collecting dozens of cards from
strangers. Follow-up with a phone call to touch base. And
for goodness sake, if you can, be sure to send some
business to the other person. Nothing will grow your own
referral business like the gratitude of other people who
have benefited from your genuine support.