Get a Direction instead of a Plan

Current wisdom has it that you need a plan to succeed. I would challenge that assessment. What is a plan? A plan is an attempt to mold the future from today's knowledge. But everyday our knowledge grows, the future changes. Quickly, updating the plan so it is current, can become more time consuming than actually living the plan.

I would argue that you should have a Direction, not a plan. A direction is a set of goals defined in time. A direction is reviewed daily so it remains fresh in your mind. Big organizations would have many directions for different departments, employees, and so on.

Each day each person makes sure they perform some tasks necessary to move in the right direction. They do this by listing items that make sense based on the world that day. Then try to complete them as rapidly as possible. This avoids excessive planning only to find out base assumptions are not true and years of man-hours needs to be scrapped.

The problem with plans is they become ridged. The plan needs to be followed even when people are starting to realize that it does not make sense. Direction is a guidepost. Direction is like a road sign that points the way. You think carefully when you decide your direction but you trust that the steps will become clear as you proceed.

Direction requires trust. It requires trust that everyone can perform at a level requiring thought. It requires trust that people generally find the way on their own. It requires trust that everyone has basic creativity. Direction is the highest form of delegation to the lowest level. Now the people doing the work and determining the steps in real time.

Try using Direction is place of your ridged plan. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Bury the Past

Bury your past. Your past is draped over you like the memories of the dead. The biggest difference is we generally remember the good about the dead and we generally remember the unfortunate about our past.

These memories send messages, you can't do it, it will not work, you tried it before remember.

These messages and memories are false. Today is a new day. Today your attempts will succeed. Today you can do it, it will work. And if it doesn't, try again tomorrow with an open heart and open head.

In the Jewish religion it is customary for the family of the deceased to shovel the dirt on the coffin up to the corners of the box. That and many other customs such as sitting Shiva where family and friends stay around for a week after the death are to help people begin to recover.

You need to develop rituals to bury your past whenever it creeps up again. These may be repeating positive words, talking a walk, reading the bible or other meaningful book.

We are all here to succeed and win. Don't let your past get in the way of succeeding in the future.

You deserve to win. You will win once your thoughts remain on the good you can accomplish today.

Giving by Receiving

Receiving is one of the biggest gifts you can give.

You are receiving when you listen to someone. You are receiving when you understand them and are empathetic. You are receiving when you there when they need you. Many times this is the biggest gift of all.

How does this tie into business?

Receiving is the basis for consultative sales. If we do not know what our customers need how can we provide it? Any good salesman of services will tell you letting the client talk so you understand them is the most important part of the sales process. By asking questions you continue to receive. This is how you begin a successful sales process.

Remember, before you can give, you must receive.

Push on the Wall

Most of us are held back by our own beliefs. In our minds these beliefs form high solid walls that cannot be crossed. Yet in real life they are often only made of chicken wire that can be pushed out of the way at will.

For example many business people are afraid to go after clients that are big enough to provide lucrative profits. They believe, “ I am not big enough” or “ We are not qualified enough” or “We do not have enough experience”. When you ask them why they think this they give you lots of reasons, “we read it”, “we heard it”, “we think it”.

We think it. Need I say more? They never pushed on the wall to see if it is solid or just thin wire. Every day pick one area and push the wall hard. Stretch your self. Go out and get rejected 50 times. Each time ask why you were rejected. Fix what you can and keep plugging forward. You almost always will accomplish things you never thought possible. Remember, the wall is only in your mind.

Set up a Sales Force

Is your refrain about a sales force,

"I have never been able to get a salesperson to perform for me. They just don’t walk to the same beat as everyone else."

Of course the first attempt at hiring a sales force did not work. That is to be expected. The first several times you tried to ride a bike you probably fell off.

In order to grow with any growth strategy other than to ride a few corporate clients (which has other business risk) you will need to create a sale team.

The way to make a sales force work is actually, to treat them like other employees or contractors. Develop systems for how you want them to work. This needs to be realistically based on meeting their needs and have realistic objectives. But, just letting a good talker run wild will never work.

One way we recommend you start is to develop a process based on your personal experience:

1. Write down exactly how you make prospect calls.
2. Write down how you do follow-up and tracking.
3. Write down how you close your sales and what the paperwork process is.
4. Write down expectations for salesperson. Specific criteria such as number of cold calls per day, number of appointments per week, etc.
5. Develop tracking method to record progress in each area
6. Find a salesperson who will work for commission or almost completely commission AND will follow your system
7. This person might start with small areas such as cold calling.
8. While part-time might be work, in most cases they must only be selling your product.
9. Plan on hiring 5 people to get one that really works for you. Set it up in the beginning that if the results are not met they will not stay. When you get the one that really works keep them happy. Usually it is not money that causes people to leave.

Fine-tune this process with input from your salespeople, experience, and others.