Many of the Executive Coaching clients I’ve worked with seem to be unaware of the “Shadow” they cast as a Leader. It’s a shadow that reflects what a leader pays attention tohow they respond to crisis, deal with a disagreement, treat those around them, and behave in general. It all feeds into the cultural fabric of the organization.

As I’ve observed, if a leader treats every unexpected problem or unanticipated roadblock as a major crisis, so will employees. If a leader takes the view that every problem could have been avoided and therefore when something goes wrong, heads will roll, the resulting behavior will be one of blame and finger-pointing. If a leader views mistakes as a natural part of learning, exploring, and experimenting, the result is an attitude that supports risk taking and innovation.

Not too long ago I worked with the head of an engineering organization who reported to the CEO of a medium sized software company. As a part of assessing his leadership style I interviewed a cross section of his direct reports, peers and a sample of primary customers. One of the most significant behaviors that surfaced was his inability to filter negative messages. For example, if the CEO met with him to talk about his concern with delivery dates or a process interruption, he would immediately call a meeting of his responsible staff members and chew them out under the guise of finding out what was happening to cause the problems. He had no idea that his behavior was being modeled by most of his direct reports and the managers that work for them throughout the organization. Being able to filter emotional messages before acting is a fundamental leadership responsibility.

Beyond actions, leaders shape the culture through the stories that they tell and the stories that are told about them. The stories that leaders tell help to inform employees about what leadership considers important.

One story that I’ve retold many times has to do with a new regional VP of Sales who had just relocated back to the U.S. as an expat. He walked into a regional sales review meeting where each manager was expected to present their forecast, where they were and why. After hearing one presentation and the beginning of a second where the managers’ complained about their products and lamented the lack of technology and product capability of their competitors, he stopped the meeting. He then got up and moved to the front of the room with what seemed to be a scene from Patton’s Army. He then said, “I didn’t come here to listen to excuses about why you can’t sell because you believe the competition has better products, technology or whatever.” What I do expect to hear is how your commitment and strategy to sell our company’s products is producing results. After that, I’m open to discussing what we can all do to improve. For those of you who may not have heard or understood what I just said, “we all get paid to sell the products and services of this company and it requires everyone’s commitment to be successful. You have a choice to make, which I expect to see at the reschedule date of this meeting.” That story became part of the folklore that helped shape the future culture of that company.

A critical element of the leadership shadow is the “Say-Do” factor. It has to do with having the courage of your convictions. If you say you are going to do something, but act differently when it’s not politically correct or represents a risk to you or your position, you put your credibility at risk as a leader and create doubts about what the company stands for. A recent situation that exemplifies the “Say-Do” factor is when Bill Belichick, the head coach of the New England Patriots didn’t allow one of his star players, Wes Welker to start in the critical playoff game against the New York Jets because of comments he made during a news conference regarding the Jets coach. Whether you agree or not, it takes courage to maintain a high Say-Do factor. And, when you consider Belichick’s overall performance as a leader and the consistent results the Patriots have achieved as an organization and business, perhaps it makes sense to examine the Leadership Shadow you cast….

We write this blog to inform and challenge the thinking of our readers. We can only tell if we’ve done that by hearing from you. That’s why we welcome your feedback and comments….

“We can’t solve the problems of today using the same thinking we used to create them”

- A. Einstein

In a sales situation he (or she) who has the most certainty prevails.

Are you certain of the value you and your organization bring to a client?

Are you certain that what you provide is exactly what the client needs?

Are you certain that the pricing is commensurate with the value that’s being provided?

Certainty is being extremely confident in you and your organization’s ability to provide the best product or service provide it only when it really fits the client’s situation, and at the fairest price for the value from your own and the client’s perspective. If you feel it’s the best, you will go to the ends of the world promoting it because why would you deprive somebody of something they really need. If you only sell it to those who absolutely need it in the form that’s best for them, then you refuse to sell it to someone for whom it isn’t the best solution, or you customize it just for them. If you want to make sure the pricing reflects the value, you don’t price it too low or too high. If it will absolutely deliver the value and you’re so certain about that that you can demonstrate the ROI, why shouldn’t the customer pay a decent amount for the best most appropriate solution. Your certainty convinces him of the value s/he will get. Your pricing demonstrates your faith in your power to deliver value.

Certainty is rock solid confidence, the kind of confidence that builds trust and faith. It’s not loud boastful arrogance. It’s a quiet but matter-of-fact sense of mastery through knowledge and experience. It’s not lengthy talking that tries to convince by beating a subject to death. It’s earning trust through being succinct, wise and authentic.

We all want certainty. We all want to know that there is something safe and secure that we can rely on. We have so much change in our lives and businesses that we’re happy when we can make a few things stable. We look for products and services that provide predictable benefits and results.  Your certainty provides confidence and comfort to the buyer.

In a situation where you want a client to buy, or you want to convince your boss or your team that your suggestion/solution is best, the amount of certainty that you show will do more to influence the decision than some of the best rational and logical things you may say. We’re all human and emotional animals. Research says that 90% or more of purchase decisions are made at an unconscious emotional level. Buyers sense your confidence, your certainty of the appropriateness of your product/service in their situation, and in your belief in the fairness of your price. At an intuitive level each one senses whether you are more certain of the benefit of the transaction than s/he is of walking away from the transaction. Price is never the issue. People make the investment or don’t (rearrange their budgets to make the investment) based on your ability to convey your certainty that this is the best opportunity that holds so much value for them and their businesses that it’s a no-brainer for them to walk with you to the next level of commitment and make a purchase or go with your solution. Your conviction about ‘yes’ must be more certain than their conviction about ‘no.’

In a sales situation he (or she) who has the most certainty prevails. By working on your mental mindset, your level of confidence and your ability to convey certainty, you can change your sales results.

Please leave a comment. Give an example of when this was true for you. We’d all like to read your story of success or lesson learned. Thank you.

Sandbagging is a term most often used in the game of golf. In golf it refers to players who either miss shots on purpose or outright cheat by turning in a higher score than they actually shot. This affects the handicap that is given to non-professional golfers to help level the playing field. Golfers turn in their scores and the scores are averaged and weighted to give the players an established handicap. This handicap is used to deduct from actual scores in tournaments to make the golfers equal based on their average scores. Unfortunatelysome golfers lie about their scores and build a higher handicap to deduct from their tournament scores. Then they play better than their handicaps to win the tournaments. This at its base is nothing short of cheating.

Sandbagging occurs off of the golf course, as well.  Here are some common ways that sandbagging is used in life and business:

• Sales people reach their quota and withhold sales at the end of month to carry over to the next month’s sales.
• Managers of operations reach their quota for the day, month or week and divert activity away from production.
• Individuals working out physically, don’t push themselves as hard as they can.
• Worker’s complete 80% of their daily tasks in half of their shift’s time and cruise through the rest of the day instead of seeing how much they can accomplish in the day.
• Spouses hedge on how much they can do for each other and thus do less for each other.
• Customer service representatives make excuses for the company instead of seeing how to meet the customer’s demands.
• Students don’t study as much as they can to get the higher grade or test result.

We all are guilty of sandbagging in some way. What would happen if sandbagging in business and life was reduced by 50%? What could be the potential gain in productivity, benefits, health and well being in our lives? What can we do? Let’s take a look at this.

Reasons That People Sandbag

• People are afraid that they will be held to a higher standard.
• People have a fear of failure or success.
• People are afraid they will not be able to duplicate results.
• Managers don’t recognize the successes; they just expect it from that point on.
• People are not aware of their true potential.

Strategies For Reducing Sandbagging

• Identify areas in your life where sandbagging may be occurring.
• Identify the reason(s) for it.
• Prioritize those areas and work on the top three.
• Share with someone what areas you want to work on.
• Monitor the progress in those areas and report to someone the results.
• Once those areas are improved, reprioritize other areas of concern.
• Enjoy the increased potential.

If we can reduce sandbagging in our lives and businesses we can increase the use of potential to levels previously thought to be unattainable. Where are you sand bagging and what are you doing about it? What an impact it would have on our economy, if we could all reduce sandbagging by 50% or more.

When I started my information technology business in 1983the last thing I thought about was how I was going to exit the business. That’s true of so many small business owners, especially owners of family owned businesses. I eventually sold the business and luckily it was mature enough that lots of systems were in place. I didn’t have a particular crisis that forced me to sell. I was lucky, but what if I hadn’t been so lucky?

Whether or not you plan on selling your business, maybe you should grow it as if you are going to sell it. Business brokers tell me that most often small business owners aren’t planning to sell their businesses, but then life happens. You need to move. You get divorced using services from https://sariehlawoffices.com/divorce-services/ online. You have newborn twins or an ill parent or you yourself become ill. You lose interest or get extremely motivated to pursue another interest. Whatever your personal reason, you want to get rid of the business immediately and, while it has value to you, it won’t have value to anyone else unless you’re building it correctly from the start.

Exit Plan

A good strategy when starting a business is to think what your exit plan is. Are you growing it to sell it? To take it to an initial public offering? To give yourself a job that you love? To pass it down to future generations? To create lifestyle freedom and flexibility? Are you planning to arrange some trainings for your staff? Check out www.piciandpici.com/keynote-speaker/ for corporate trainings.

It’s important to know your goals and how this business will further your life goals right from the start. It will effect your choice of business entity, C Corporation, S Corporation, LLC, sole proprietor (at this point should be careful with theft and its better to hire Identity Theft Cherry Hill specialists). It will effect how much time you put into it. It will effect whether or not you have partners and who you choose. And even if your business is doing extremely well, it still pays hugely to make sure you are not wasting money so we suggest that you consider one of the great procurement consultancies# that are available to help you reduce your business costs.

Making Your Business More Valuable

Here are some things that make a business more valuable to another party. If you institute them right from the beginning, you’ll enjoy your business more, you’ll have a stronger business, and it will be closer to being sale-ready in case ‘life happens.’

• Build your customer list in one place. Many small business owners have a customer list in the accounting software, some names in a database, some other names in a few spreadsheets. If you have sales people, they have their own lists. If you have service people, they have their own lists. If you want smooth customer relations now and be able to point to a strong client and prospect database for potential buyers of your business, you’ll bring all these lists together and make every name the property of the company maintained in a company wide database or customer relations management (CRM) software program. Added benefits are that staff can more easily help the firm’s customers even when their fellow staff members are out of the office.
• Develop a high performance team of engaged employees. A company culture that encourages people to think on their own, take risks, take responsibility for doing what it takes to delight customers, and be accountable for their own goals doesn’t happen over night. It takes a management attitude of praise, empowerment, coaching, collaboration, really being interested in each individual’s personal goals and development. When fear of failure is minimized and initiative is encouraged (even if it leads to mistakes) people learn tasks better and they learn that they are capable of learning even more. The benefits are that you get to take a vacation and know that everything will still run without you because you have a capable team. You will retain your best talent and keep the learning in the organization. A potential buyer will pay you more for your business because the business is not just all about you. Do you want to retire? Did a family crisis come up? Need to sell now? At least your business can run without you on a daily basis until a buyer can be found and the purchase transaction completed. You can attract different kinds of buyers. The individual buyer may not be particularly knowledgeable about the business. It gives this buyer time to ramp up. There are lots of individuals right now who have been laid off from corporate jobs and now are going to follow a long-held dream to own their own businesses. Or serial entrepreneurs looking for an investment business where not a lot of management is needed. Or larger businesses in the same industry who are buying your business to expand into a new geography, niche or technology. A business like yours with a highly responsible team that can run on its own on a day-to-day basis is very attractive because it spells reduced management and change costs for them. Their new group is profitable from day 1, even without you.And if you want to keep your staff really happy then the best tip that we can give is to utilise flexible employee benefits as with these you give the staff just what they love so that works so much better than standard benefits.
• Get your accounting fully up to date and keep it up to date. You will be asked for all kinds of financial reports to get potential buyer interest, to sustain interest, to discuss the terms on a letter of intent and to move into due diligence. You’ll need 3-5 years of financials. So if you might sell your business 3-5 years from now (or have a personal emergency or change-of-heart about owning this business), you better start now to make your accounting function into a reliable trustworthy system. That includes your people, software, internal operational systems, tax payments and CPA. By having a reliable system to make sure you’re managing payroll, sales tax, and loan payments correctly, you’re less likely to have embarrassing and deal-killing issues come up. The benefit now is that you will have much better management tools and reports and make better decisions to grow.

There are other considerations. Certainly potential buyers are interested in customer and vendor relationships, the status and trends in the industry and a wealth of other factors. But if you pay attention to the three factors above, you will be managing your business well, whether or not you sell it. Then if life happens, you’re well positioned with a stable measurable foundation that spells value for a potential buyer.

If you have bought or sold a business and can throw light on what you did do or wish you had done to get it ready, please share it. Comments are greatly appreciated by all so this can be a learning blog for everyone.

When you are creating marketing programs or activitiesit pays to know who the decision makers and the influencers are. In Business to Business marketing, (B2B) any of these scenarios might be the case:

• Your product or service might be bought by a purchasing agent who gets multiple bids and makes the decision on what bid to go with.
• The CEO or the VP of a department might make the decision of who the vendor is and what to purchase, and then tell the purchasing agent to go through with the process.
• In a small company there may be no purchasing agent. The CEO signs the engagement letter or purchase document.
• Often a team will do research and make decisions on items needed by the team.
• There may be people at lower levels who gather the information about who the players are in the industry, and then bring their findings to the CEO for interviews and decision making. You could be in or out of the final round based on the personal relationship you have with the information gatherer.
• Who else is an influencer? Many times the assistant to the decision maker screens calls, screens who gets to see the boss. She also might report on your behavior during the appointment making process or while waiting to see the decision maker.

In the information technology business I had for 18 years, we often used our receptionist this way. She had been with our firm since the beginning. She was very personable and a good judge of character. Whenever a vendor came to call or a job applicant was being interviewed, we purposely had him wait for a few minutes in the reception area so that she could engage him in conversation. She would assess his verbal and nonverbal interactions when he thought he was ‘off’ and she was part of the team that decided how we would proceed.

So who do you market to? Who do you want to see you as an expert, as a thought leader? Who do you want to establish your brand with? Who are the decision makers and the influencers? Here’s where knowing your target market makes a lot of difference. How big are the firms? How do they do their purchasing? Are the decision makers making decisions by themselves or are the businesses in this niche generally run by a team? How can you get to market to the team, to the influencers, to the assistants, to the decision maker, to the purchasing agent? What kinds of marketing outreach will effect each one?

Marketing follows need. So look for the need. Identify needs and you’ll have a much better idea about how to market most effectively.

What kind of need does the decision maker have that the non-decision makers don’t have? For instance, CEO’s tend to think more strategically while people in less managerial positions think more tactically. The CEO might want something that prevents future problems while the line worker may want something that solves today’s version of the problem.

What kind of need does the information gatherer have that is different than the decision maker? To be valued by the company and ultimately by the decision maker, most likely. What kinds of things can you do to positively brand yourself and your product or service in her eyes?

What about the purchasing agent? What need does the purchasing agent have? To look good in the eyes of her managers that she can handle the details smoothly, save the company money, negotiate well?

There are a lot of questions here. Each situation is different. The key is to understand your customer, their business model, their corporate structure, how they make money, their needs at every level of the organization, their personalities, their researching and buying processes. The more you understand, the better you can market to them. Remember a company is really a collection of individuals with needs and wants. Recognizing this can make a huge difference in how your company is perceived and branded in the marketplace.

Interested in Marketing? Tonight is the night of our free teleseminar Get MORE Clients, 12 Strategies that Produce Results Instead of Keeping You Stuck Going Around In Circles. Sign up to get the dial-in information. www.drivingir.com/get-more-clients

For some it’s the time it takes to get it done.

For others it’s the fact that you have to pay someone to do it and it doesn’t seem to generate any revenue by itself.

For others it’s not knowing what to dothe best strategies and tactics.

For others it’s not having any clarity about a targeted niche. Lack of clarity makes marketing a whole lot more difficult.

Marketing is positioning and branding so you attract the most interested and qualified prospects, so that you can subsequently sell to them. Without marketing you’re a scattershot. Without marketing, you’re flailing your arms in the wind trying to catch fireflies. That’s why you have to consider looking for a top rated digital marketing agency like BlackStorm Design Marketing to really give you the outcome you are expecting for your business. A good marketing program is like turning on a light in the dark outside and all the insects are attracted to it, and for this you also need a good website to promote you products and learning about web design pricing could be essential for this purpose, and with this get exceptional content marketing results.

Thinking of opening a drug rehab center? The Drug Rehab Agency Consultants can help you start your center and make it profitable in the opening months and beyond. So how can you be like a honeycomb that attracts bees? You have to stop trying to be a honeycomb that attracts bees, ants, hornets, wasps, antelopes, elephants and cows. Trying to attract too large and varied a market is self-sabotaging because no prospect sees how you can solve their particular needs. You’re better off selecting a very narrow niche, identifying and speaking to the very specific needs of that niche, and providing a solution that is specific like a key that fits into a lock and online marketing agencies like LinkDigital can help with your strategy.

When you do that, everything becomes easier. Now you reach that niche right where they are, at their trade association meetings, in their magazines and newsletters. Need help? Seek out other non-competing professions that also sell to that niche. Get information, form partnerships, do mutual endorsements. Reduce costs, save time, leverage your mailing lists together.

You also have a real or perceived special knowledge of your products’ applicability to the issues and problems that niche deals with. They really need your key to fit into their lock and unlock the answers to their problems. They will pay more to get what you have because they need it. The riches are in the niches. You also save when you provide your product or service. Because the clients are similar, you can be an expert at marketing products in search engines, better buying of the objects or outsourced services, economies of scale with administrative tasks, etc. The world is your oyster. Better marketing leads to better clients, more sales, reduced costs and more profits, learn a backlink strategy to boost your business at the link.

So is it worth it in spite of your gripes? You tell me. Tell us your thoughts. We’d love to hear your comments.

If you’d like to be better at marketing your business, please check out our upcoming coaching program called Magnified Marketing Multiplies My Money!