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Category: Personal Development

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Best Practices Growth Human Resources Management Personal Development

Are You Thinking About Becoming a Mentor or a Coach?

Welcome to 10 Tips to Becoming a Successful Coach! 

Over the next 10 days I’ll be sharing a series of things to consider if you’re seriously thinking about Professional Coaching as a career.

Mentor vs. Coach?

There’s an important difference.  They’re both valuable roles.  Coaching focusses on the client.  Mentoring is based on the knowledge and skills of the mentor.

Mentors pass down history, traditions, rules and rituals that are associated with success.

Mentors talk and teach. Mentors are often appointed by a corporation or organization because of their successes in their careers.  It’s an opportunity for them to tell their stories to others in the company who want to climb up the ranks.  They tend to give advice based on what they figured out for themselves in their many years of experiences.  It’s an honor to be appointed a mentor. The unspoken rule is that Mentees are expected to listen and follow.

In contrast, Coaches Listen and Guide.  A coach will assist, challenge and encourage rather than lead, give orders, instruct or advise.  While good coaches do have experience and knowledge in particular areas their role is to understand, motivate and guide rather than train.

As a coach, even though your client came to you for your expertise and reputation; even though they think they want you to solve their challenge and tell them what to do; it’s really not about you and your talents or strengths.

It’s about who they are and their particular journeys.  Clients need help in talking about and clarifying their destination – Why they chose it, what the benefits are, what tools they have to get there.

Great coaches listen intently through the filter or their knowledge and experience. They reflect what they understand from interviewing their clients so the clients can better see, embrace and recognize their strengths. Clients are empowered to see themselves as problem solvers for their wants and needs.

So, for example, as a coach it’s better to avoid asking your client a question and then immediately launching into an explanation and your solution to their problem. It’s about what the client believes and needs; what they want to achieve.

Unless you focus on their goal and not what you think it should be they’ll probably remain stuck, which is most likely the main reason they came for your coaching.

You’re the catalyst to their success, not the driver.  As you help them identify their dreams, goals, strengths, skills and potential gaps, the road map to their goal will start to take shape in a realizable, step by step plan.

Then you can guide them and hold them accountable along the way.

Thinking about getting certified as a Professional Coach? Want to talk about it? Or any questions you have about professional coaching? Let’s talk and see whether or not it makes sense for you to become a certified professional coach.

To Learn About Our Upcoming Fast Track Certification Workshop This March in New York City

The cost of $75 for the 30 minute consultation can be applied to the TLC Professional Coach Training program if you decide to join.

Tip 2 will be along tomorrow.

Warmest regards,

Sharon 🙂

Dr. Sharon Livingston

www.DrSharonLivingston.com

603 505 5000 cell

DrSharonLivingston@Gmail.com

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Best Practices Growth Personal Development

The 1st Line of Your Blog: Your 2nd Chance to Grab the Reader’s Attention

If you pull them past the headline line, make sure you keep them.

80-90% of your readers won’t go beyond the subject line. However, I suspect that their eyes may stray to the first line that follows. If you write a good one, you have another chance to get someone to read your email.

Sample Headlines and Follow-ups

Your Headlines Can Save You or Sink You

Here are 10 great ways to write headlines that zing.

Your Doctor Says: “Lose Weight or Die.”

Resist the urge to run home and bury your fear with food.

Noise Pollution is Making You Sick

Turn off the sounds that kill.

From Problem to Solution

In these pairs, the headline presents the problem, and the next line demonstrates that by reading the blog, you can find solutions.

This is a very popular approach for solution-based blog. However, the first line is important for any kind of story.

Shock-Value Headlines and Follow-ups

I Grew Up in a Satanic Cult

I ran for my life when I was sixteen.

Below are some examples from old issues of True Confessions magazine. This magazine is worth studying, not because you want to write those kinds of stories but because they know how to ramp up the dramatic value of headlines and following lines that get read.

When a Girl Goes to Prison

What really happens on the inside.

Search and Rescue

I saved a life and found love.

Your slightly less lurid pairing might read:

I Was 30 Days Away from Bankruptcy

I had given up all hope.

He Asked, “Why Should I Hire You?”

I had 10 seconds to come up with an answer.

Location Is Everything

This is especially true when you’re writing a blog post. Position the first line so that it falls ABOVE whatever graphic you use. That way, it’s a continuation of the headline.

If you’re writing for a publication where you don’t have that kind of design control, you can keep the headline and first line together by making the line a subhead.

For example, you could do this:

I Was 30 Days Away from Bankruptcy:

I Had Given Up All Hope

I’ve changed the former first line to upper and lower-case and deleted the period.  The character count is 29 for this revised title. Given that 55% of people read blogs on their phone, keep your titles at no more than 34 characters and spaces.

Be Creative

Experiment. It’s always important to check your statistics and to study the comments you get on blogs. It’s unlikely that someone will tell you, “I loved your title and first line,” but if they leave a comment, these elements pulled them in enough to read further.

And that’s what you want.

Pat Iyer started blogging in 2009; since then she was written over a thousand blog posts. She is one of the original 100 C Suite Network Advisors. Connect with her at patiyer.com.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

Do You Know What Really Makes You Happy?

“Happiness is your state of mind that only exists when you think it does.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

One day you’re up. The next day you’re down, and so the yo-yo goes. Maybe the ups and downs are not daily, but it occurs to a degree in everyone’s life. Do you know the frequency of your ups and downs? Do you know what really makes you happy?

There’s a reason you should take account of your happiness quotient. It’s the doorway to accomplishing greater achievements. It’s also the doorway that leads to the perception of you leading a better life.

Consider the following insights to note your degree of happiness, what sparks it, and what might cause it to decline.

Self-Psychology:

Know the triggers that lead to happiness and unhappiness. Those two boundaries will be your guardrails that trip your inner silent alarm. Even if you encounter an abundance of happiness, sensitize yourself to how it occurred. You can use those stimuli to acquire greater happiness. That will serve as a motivator to spur you to higher heights. The point is, know what motivates you to stride forward faster and you’ll be more aware of how to do so.

Happiness:

Everyone has a slightly different definition of happiness. To understand the impact that happiness has on you, define what it means to you. Not doing so subjects you to the whims of life’s occurrences. You’ll relinquish control to those dictates and they, not you, will determine when you’re happy and when you’re not.

Unhappiness:

In my writings, presentations, and trainings, I’ve suggested to people worldwide that they note what makes them unhappy. Some have responded by saying, “why would I focus on negativity – that’ll only serve to make me unhappier”. Think about that for a moment. If you didn’t know what a hot stove felt like, you’d be more likely to touch it and get burned. How many times would you want that to occur? The point is, yin and yang are the boundaries of happiness. And unhappiness is the yin in that equation. The more you’re aware of what makes you unhappy, the more clarity you’ll have about how to avoid it.

Friends:

There are some things that we’re more passionate about than others; longtime friends can fall into that category. While some longtime friends can provide a form of happiness, you should be aware of the impact they have on other aspects of your life. In some cases, their views and opinions may no longer support the goals you’re seeking to achieve. If that’s the case, know the value that they add to your happiness quotient. You don’t have to discard them, just appreciate them for the value they add to your life from a different perspective.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

The degree of happiness you experience when negotiating will impact your degree of engagement. Happiness is an unseen ally that’ll allow you to think more clearly from which greater ideas will flow. It will also serve as the tool that unlocks your ability to make better offers and counteroffers.

The more you’re aware of what ignites your degrees of happiness when you’re negotiating and how to temper unhappiness, the better you’ll be when negotiating … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Happy#Success #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

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Personal Development Sales

Is Your CPG Business on the Wrong Side of History?

Since we created a popular consumer packaged goods brand, now recognized around the world, we’re asked a lot of questions about packaging. People want to know, “What are the new trends?” and “What’s the latest in packaging?” The “P” in CPG does stand for “package” after all.

In The Graduate, a movie released in 1967, a college graduate hears some advice from his father’s friend: “I’ve got one word for you, Benjamin. Plastics.” If we were to give advice to today’s college grads, we would add the word “alternatives,” making the greatest advice we could give, “plastic alternatives.”

Today’s market

“World wildlife populations have fallen by 60 percent in just over four decades,” according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The same report states, “In 1960, 5 percent of seabirds had plastics in their stomachs. Now that number is up to 90 percent.”

Wildlife isn’t just nice to look at. We’ve finally learned that it is essential for both the economy and our own health. Tanya Steele of the WWF states, “We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet, and the last generation that can do anything about it.”

With more and more reports like this being released, video footage showing plastic in the stomachs of seabirds and fish, and a huge social media conversation on the subject, is it still possible for CPG brands to continually whistle past the graveyard?

Before this starts to sound “political” or like some tree-hugging lamentation, let’s look at the advantages of favoring biodegradable packaging over single-use plastics. This is all about getting in front of a huge trend instead of being the last one to hop on board, or to miss it altogether. Any CPG brand that announces they are no longer contributing to the ecosystem’s collapse will have the upper hand in an increasingly information-savvy marketplace.

As consumers get younger and younger, with more life ahead of them, a larger percentage will be affected by environmental ruin. They are starting to favor brands that use environmentally conscious packaging. They vote with their purchase decisions, fighting against environmental damage.

Instead of just copying competitors that deliver products with single-use plastic to gain a cost advantage, companies that use alternative packaging materials can set themselves apart, giving themselves a halo and creating a base of loyal advocates in the process.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation warned us that, by 2050, there will be more plastic waste in the ocean than fish (2016). Instead of ignoring the elephant in the room, which in this case is filling our waters with single-use plastic, CPG trailblazers have the chance to educate their customer base, attracting more customers in the process.

So why not put yourself on the right side of history and lead the next big thing—plastic alternatives?

Risky business

 When we started the Barefoot Wine brand, we couldn’t afford advertising, so we made sure to support issues that were important to us. Early on, we made the risky decision to support the League’s “Keep Tahoe Blue” campaign to save Lake Tahoe. This was seen as a radical attempt at the time, hurting jobs, halting the economy, and being bent on stopping lake development.

But as time continued on, the lake’s preservation ultimately boosted property values and the economy overall! Our position on this issue was initially met with protests by realtors and developers, but our early support eventually helped provide the education that would change people’s minds. This created a solid customer base for us.

We were also early supporters of the “Save Mono Lake” movement by the Mono Lake Committee. Again, we were scolded for taking a stance on a “political” issue. But, once the Los Angeles metro discovered efficient toilet systems, the lake was saved and we were seen as heroes in the marketplace.

In both of these scenarios, we were on the right side of history. Our sales escalated and we gained loyal customers. Today’s early adopters of alternative packaging will be on the right side of history, too. They will set themselves far apart from their competitors. And the extra sales can’t hurt, right? Do yourself and your business a favor and take the high road—all the way to the bank!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Women In Business

Can You Negotiate in a Life and Death Challenge?

“Perception determines how you’ll engage in an endeavor. Thus, you should always assess your perception before doing so.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

There you are. Everything is on the line. You’re negotiating in a life and death challenge. What might you do and how might you negotiate differently giving the life and death challenge that confronts you? Would the answer depend on whose life you were negotiating for?

Okay, let’s turn the temperature down a little. Suppose it was your job or a contract that you were negotiating for instead of someone’s life. Would that alter the negotiation tactics and strategies you’d employ?

There are central components that flow through every negotiation. The only thing that changes is their order based on the severity of the negotiation.

The following are components that will occur in every negotiation you’ll encounter. Master them and you’ll have a greater chance of mastering successful negotiation outcomes.

Mindset: Your mindset is your greatest ally or foe.

  • Always be aware of the mindset you possess when negotiating. Your mindset will determine the degree that you think logically or illogically.
  • Your mindset will change based on the challenges you perceive and how you address them. That will impact the interactions you have with the other negotiator.
  • Be aware of what causes you to see yourself differently. Therein will lie embedded clues about why your mind shifts. 

Bonding: I understand you. We’re alike.

  • People like people that are like themselves. And, they want to be heard and appreciated.
  • Bonding helps people to perceive you as being like them.
  • The time to ask for concessions in a negotiation is when you’ve bonded sufficiently. It’s an important factor that increases the odds of getting what you want.

Positioning/Controlling the negotiation: Look how far we’ve come. I see a positive outcome on the horizon.

  • Prior to starting the negotiation establish what will be discussed. That will determine the flow of the negotiation.
  • Set the agenda to discuss the items of greatest importance first. The other negotiator will have his priorities. So, be prepared to trade points to ensure you control the negotiation’s flow.
  • Determine which strategies and tactics are most appropriate for the type of negotiation you’ll engage in.

Reframing: That’s not what I meant.

  • Know when to reframe an offer. Sometimes people perceive offers differently from what was intended. If you sense that, reframe the offer. That will allow it to be viewed from a different perspective, which could make it more appealing.
  • To reframe an offer to make it more appealing, position it as a benefit to the other negotiator.

Pace: Change of pace alters a negotiation’s flow.

  • Bypass points of contention when you want to avoid them (e.g. Let’s come back to that later).
  • Negotiate slower or faster to increase or relieve anxiety or pressure when it’s to your advantage to do so.
  • Changing your pace of speech when making offers will impact their perception. If more time is required to have the importance of an offer appreciated, consider speaking slower. That will subliminally convey its importance.

Hope: The outcome doesn’t have to be bleak.

  • Brandish hope as an ally. Doing so will keep people engaged in the negotiation.
  • Take hope away when the other negotiator strays in the wrong direction. Your intent is to let him know that he’s engaged in a losing proposition.

Every negotiation you’ll be in will not be life and death. But the components above will be in every negotiation you’re in. Using them adeptly will enhance your probability of having a successful negotiation outcome … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Life #death #challenge #Negotiate #Negotiations #bodylanguage #Negotiator #Business #Management #SmallBusiness #Money #Negotiating #combat #negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #PersonalDevelopment #HandlingObjections #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology #NegotiationPsychology

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Best Practices Economics Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Sales Skills Technology

Trends for Every Salesperson

Every profession goes through changes, especially sales. A certain sales technique may have worked in the past, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work today. To be a top-performing salesperson today and in the future, you must continuously adapt to both market and social conditions.

There are several new business trends taking place—all of which affect salespeople in every industry. Understand what the trends are and how to maximize them so you can maintain a successful sales career.

Your Past Success Will Hold You Back

People who are in sales long-term tend to be successful. However, success is your worst enemy. Being at the top and doing well means you’re just trying to keep up and meet demand. You’re not looking at future opportunities because you’re busy reaping the rewards of current ones. The old saying “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” should be reworked today to state, “If it works, it’s obsolete.” If you just bought the latest device, odds are that the newer, better version is already in existence and about to be released to the public. We must evolve to stay ahead of rapid obsolescence in business.

Technology-Driven Change Will Dramatically Accelerate

While it’s human nature to protect the status quo, you have to understand that technology is changing the future, customers’ behavior, and your company’s reality. If you don’t change, you’ll be out of a job. As a salesperson, you need to embrace change wholeheartedly rather than resist and hold tight to the past. Spend some time thinking about where these impactful changes are headed. Change causes uncertainty in customers’ minds, so you bring certainty to them when you display confidence in change.

Time is increasing in value

Time is becoming more important to people because we have an aging demographic of Baby Boomers in the United States. Time gets more valuable as you get older because you have less of it. The world is more complex, with much more for people to do with their time. With so much going on, everyone is increasingly strapped for time. As a salesperson, make your customers feel that talking to you is actually saving them time. The list of time wasters is virtually endless, and these hurt your sales and profits. Prove that you’re a time saver and people will choose you over the competition.

We’ve Shifted From the Information Age to the Communication Age

Many salespeople rely on static marketing tools like company websites, flyers, and sales letters. These methods are a one-way interface. The better way is to have your sales messages be dynamic. For example, you could have a contest that encourages people to go to your site and enter. Instead of just telling people to buy your snack product, you can encourage customers to go online and vote for the next new flavor, getting them involved. The key is to generate communication, engagement, and involvement through your sales and marketing efforts. Don’t just hand out information; you want to listen, speak, and create dialogue to capture your prospects’ interest.

Solutions To Present Problems Are Becoming Obsolete Faster

Almost every salesperson has been told to be proactive by taking positive action. Unfortunately, you must wait and see to know if a certain action is positive. Instead, be pre-active to future known events. You need to look at your customer segment and identify what types of events you are certain they will experience, and focus your actions on what will be happening rather than on what is happening. Being pre-active also means that you change the way people think. When you put out a new product, it takes a while to catch on because you’re not actively changing the way people think about how the product can be used. Constantly educate your customers on the value you and your products or services offer.

The Value You Bring Today is Forgotten Faster

Sell the future benefit of what you do. Most salespeople sell the current benefits to customers who already know what they are. Your goal as a salesperson should be to establish a long-term, problem-solving relationship with customers, not a short-term transaction. Your most profitable customer is a repeat customer, so help them realize the long-term benefit of your partnership. Show them how the products and services you offer will evolve with their needs by selling the evolution of your products and services. Sit down with your fellow salespeople to create a list of future benefits that you have for your customers, and then get an idea of where the product and service developers are heading to think of future benefits preemptively.

Sales Success for the Future

The more you understand and adapt to today’s current business trends, the better your sales will be—today and in the future.

Are you anticipating future trends in your sales career? If you want to learn more about the changes that are ahead and how to turn them into an advantage by becoming anticipatory, pick up a copy of my latest book, The Anticipatory Organization.

Pick up your copy today at www.TheAOBook.com

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Personal Development Women In Business

Turning “Failure” Into a Learning Lesson

A few years ago, I had to deal with an opportunity that went awry in my business. It was disappointing, frustrating and complicated, to say the least. As I was going through it, I questioned my own ability to make clear decisions. I wondered how I missed some of the signs that perhaps others had seen. I spent too much time replaying every little detail. And I kept asking myself the question: Was I a failure?

Here’s the thing, I was working on a project that I so was extremely passionate and excited about that I allowed myself to be blinded by the questionable factors that were happening at the same time. I brushed it off, continued to do the work and, mind you, be successful in the process. I continued to forge on until I had to face the reality that the project was not going to find completion.

As a life coach, my job is to make sure my clients are reaching their goals in a positive and growth-filled way. I want to make sure any project I work on is going to be impactful to my audience. My message is clear — you can have the life of your dreams if you do the work and find optimism in your journey. Once I realized that for my now defunct project, I no longer felt like I had failed. I needed to find the learning lesson in my experience. I teach this to my clients every day; it was time I listened to my own advice.

Overcoming a “failure” (not a word I particularly like), isn’t easy. Here are a few steps to help you along in your process:

1. Acknowledge your “failure.” Allow yourself to say yes; give yourself the grace to recognize that your situation happened to you. This could be a difficult pill to swallow. You’re going to get questions from outsiders asking about details of your experience. It’s your choice about how much information to share. Always be honest with your responses, and be careful with oversharing.

2. Accept it. Moving through a failed situation is like moving through the grief process. There are a few stages: shock, anger, guilt and reflection followed by the upturn of rebuilding through it. You have to be able to step back and be okay with your experience in the end. Give yourself a few minutes a day to work through it, start with the bad thoughts, continue through the learning pieces and end with positive affirmations. I use this exercise with my clients and it helps tremendously.

3. Look for the positive lesson. What did you learn from your experience? What would you change or do differently? In my case, I had the opportunity to meet and network with some amazing new people with whom I will continue to cultivate relationships. I learned to be better at vetting business partners. I learned that regardless of this particular outcome, my passion for collaborating and creating will continue.

Often we see failure as a bad thing. But if we turn it around and find the learning experience in it, the situation can become a little easier to bear. I try to learn from all of my experiences, good or bad. That allows me to continue to grow and educate myself both personally and professionally.

Don’t beat yourself up too much. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes. The most important thing is that we learn from them all.

Categories
Culture Growth Leadership Personal Development

The New Generation of Casual Dress in the Workplace

Take a look into any office today and there will be a noticeable difference in how employees are dressed compared to past decades. Dress code policies in companies today are, without a question, more casual as younger generations enter the workforce. This adds an element of having more leniency, which has been raising a lot of questions for business professionals, as well as those trying to navigate what is and is not appropriate in their workplace.

In the late 1900s, it was unacceptable to show up to work in anything besides a complete suit, ironed to perfection. For women, a business pantsuit or tailored dress with little to no color was the usual. More informal dress began as “casual Fridays” which was seen as a benefit for employees but also built moral between every employee in the office.

Today, we see companies like Google, who claims they have no dress code at all, and employees are free to wear sweatpants if they choose to do so. Many other big companies including Apple and Facebook, have made the switch to a casual dress code. This can include business casual, or even jeans and a generic shirt. Even Wall Street has made the switch to a more casual policy, one that would have never been acceptable in years prior. As technology continues to grow and change the way companies do business, it makes sense to be able to loosen up on the demands of everyday attire. So, what does this mean for our new generations entering the workforce? Are the dress code changes leading to a more lenient and lackadaisical work effort? As a business owner, it is important to assess and decide what type of dress code is effective for your company.

Will allowing employees to wear casual outfits hinder their performance and make them lazier? The opinions of this topic vary greatly and by generation.

There is a common belief that dressing up professionally puts employees into a working and proactive mindset. “You look good, you feel good” is a common phrase that explains that you will perform better and have a better work ethic when you are dressed to impress. Some professionals believe that what kind of work you are doing, depends as well. Assistant professor at Columbia Business School and Author of “The Cognitive Consequences of Formal Clothing” state that casual clothing makes workers think less abstractly and more concretely, useful for completing tasks focusing on details such as writing code or planning a product launch. He says that with a formal dress, workers feel more powerful and ready to tackle higher-level abstract thinking. When thinking of the bigger picture, dressing formally will increase productivity. The new generation has a different approach.

Millennials have grown up seeing Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, in a casual t-shirt and jeans and believe this does in no way define your productivity or success. When asking some students at the Business Management building at the University at Buffalo, the overall consensus was that being comfortable leads to being more productive. Students say that when they are not in a stuffy suit, especially in the hot summer, they are more relaxed and can focus on their goals for work. For the women students at UB, comfortable shoe wear is key. “When I wasn’t forced to wear high heels that hurt my feet, I could focus so much better on the presentation I was giving and not how I looked and felt.”

Another benefit of casual dress in the work environment is that employees report that they feel like an important asset within their company. They feel that everyone in their office is a team and that they are not just a level in the hierarchy of their organization. This can lead to removing communication barriers between employees and higher managers within offices. Removing these barriers allows for a better flow of ideas, and can improve attitudes and performance. All these can positively affect the productivity and success of an organization.

On the flip side, casual policies may potentially have a negative effect on the performance of employees. If employees have a more relaxed mindset and laid-back attitude, this could hinder their motivation to complete projects and reach goals within their position. In strict work environments, serious attitudes are crucial in getting work done. There can also be negative effects, depending on the environment you work in. A family friend who I spoke to about this topic works as a funeral director. His opinion was that he feels he needs to always be dressed completely professional at all times. He works with clients and families going through a hard time on an everyday basis. To him and his other employees, proper dress code, including a suit and tie is required. If the dress code was different at his company, his business would be affected negatively. Generally, when working in an industry where you will be meeting with professionals or clients often, professional attire should be necessary. If you are mostly working online, or in an office, where you rarely work with clients or the general public, there can be less restrictions on how you dress.

There are many different opinions to the conversation of whether Millennials are becoming too casual, or if this is a new outlook that can lead to a better work environment for the next generations. It is important to access your clientele, audience and decide how conservative your company is. Decide on what company culture goals are for your brand and for your employees as well. Do employees want to not be distracted by uncomfortable clothing and can work diligently in casual attire? Or do they believe that dressing to impress is a good mentality where they need to look polished and professional at all times? Dress code defines your brand and message to your audience, and it is important to choose wisely what message you want to portray. Once you have reached this decision, it can positively impact your company and its long- term success!

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Best Practices Growth Leadership Personal Development

Making Decisions Outside Your Comfort Zone

Business leaders must become aware of their cognitive biases in how they make and execute on their decisions. These decisions can affect their teams, the growth of their organizations, and the future potential gains, and losses, that the business receives.

Loss aversion is the cognitive bias where people naturally lose a more significant amount of satisfaction from a loss than they receive from a similarly valued gain. This bias manifests in two distinct patterns, in anticipation, and in framing a particular loss or gain.

Anticipation can become a crucial component of this bias, and affect decision makers based on how they have experienced gains or losses in the past. Decision-makers who have historically faced a weighty loss may become more hesitant to enter similar situations. This hesitation can lead to lost opportunities or undue delay in moving forward on projects. For example, hiring managers who have felt that a number of their poor hires have come from a particular generation may be hesitant in hiring similar candidates. Just the same, those decision-makers who have beaten the odds in the past may have a skewed sense of their success and take more significant risks in the future. Every financial prospectus explains this flawlessly, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

Framing the risk, and explaining the loss in different terms may also affect how decision-makers approach a solution. Objectively, gaining a discount or avoiding a surcharge is the same. However, both situations elicit different emotional responses. Based on their past deals, and how they approach situations, this opt-in versus opt-out can skew behavior and allow for poor decision making towards critical business matters. Managers who are facing cutting expenses from a budget may overlook opportunities to raise revenue because their focus is only on the expense column.

Ultimately business leaders must remain objective in their decisions.

Extensive subjectivity or emotional involvement in the subject matter can allow for leaders to become irrational and not make the best decisions with the data and information present. Business leaders must be able to look past the data and see it in context. One data point, however it may be framed, is still a single data point. The more considerable power of data is in being able to view it in context, either to other similar points, or trends over time.
Similarly, managers must be able to see the upside of choices and understand that the most significant gains lie in the outliers. If all of our decisions must be satisfied within six standard deviations, then it will become impossible to progress and make the necessary leaps for remaining competitive in today’s dynamic market environment.

Every day business leaders are forced to expand their comfort zones. Remaining knowledgeable on this common cognitive bias can help ensure that they are making the best decisions in leaving their safe space and exploring how they can expand, especially in incremental ways.

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Best Practices Sales Skills

You Need Both: Sales Process AND Sales Methodology

In the sales performance space, there are those who think sales process and methodology are the same thing, and those who realize they’re different. If you couldn’t tell which side of the debate I’m on, they’re different, and do different jobs.

Some of the confusion is that both are kinds of process, although methodology isn’t always as predictably sequential.

Process:  Selling Activities.

The term selling process refers to the actions a selling organization takes along its selling journey. These steps might include (but might not be limited to):

  • Prospecting
  • Qualifying
  • Needs Analysis
  • Demonstration
  • Proposal
  • Negotiation
  • Close and Implementation.

When these are detailed sufficiently, people throughout the selling organization know what deliverables they need to support the process at what times, what documentation is expected, what resources are typically required, and much more.  Process grows into a “playbook”.

Notice that these are seller-centric activities.  Once your company builds its sales process, this are a great way to track an opportunity pursuit through your funnel or pipeline.

Today’s CRMs are mostly built around processes.  They usually come with a generic process provided, and one of the first thing a company needs to do is define their process in that CRM.  Manager dashboards will also be boilerplate at first.  It’s commonplace to track selling activities like calls made, emails sent, lunches bought, demos scheduled, and more.  Once you have management reports and analytics defined and refined, sales managers can track a lot of activities really efficiently.

There is one thing missing from sales process:  the customer’s buying process.  Tracking only selling activity fulfills the great promise of  CRM when:

  • All customers buy the same way
  • Every customers is equally engaged
  • All customers have the same needs
  • Customers respond equally to the same “value messages” (a term I really disrespect.I’ve blogged on this before, and am likely to do so again in the near future).

Every sales professional knows what doesn’t happen when they keep churning through a sales process while a customer has not progressed through a buying process.  Methodology solves for that.

Methodology: Selling Behaviors (which engage a buying process.)

Sales methodology consists of trainable, coachable, trackable selling behaviors that engage a customer in a buying process.

It’s easy to measure process, like number of telephone dials (especially with CRM/phone system integration). Measuring number of quality conversations is hard.  Don’t do either in isolation.

Ironically, I hear sales leaders tell anyone who will listen that they need to measure quality and not quantity…while looking at sales process analytics.  The reason that they’re achieving the results they may be because they’re measuring activity.

Methodology…behaviors…keeps the sales process aligned with the buying process.  Methodology behaviors might look like (but might not be limited to):

  • Understand the buying process being used
  • Understand all of the buying personas.
  • Planning and executing meeting plans to uncover all needs, all desired outcomes, and the value of all of those outcomes to the various personas.
  • Building a case for change, including adding personas where your value warrants.
  • Cultivating internal support for a proposal.
  • Aligning demonstration, then proposal points to persona outcomes.
  • Building the value case
  • Facilitating any customer change management, and setting implementation up for success.

Because every customer buys differently, methodology tends to be less rigidly sequential.  The customer buy process drives methodology, but should generally track with a well-designed (that is, customer-centric) selling process.  For example, change management appears prominently near the end of a sales process, but methodology should have uncovered individual persona outcomes and developed supporters of the change all through a pursuit.

Process vs. Methodology:

 First, I should point out that by “vs.” above, I don’t mean that there is an either/or choice.  You need both.  The “vs.” is because I want to contrast the two to show why you need both.

Process vs Methodology Table

Process organizes and orchestrates the complex web of selling organization activity around selling and delivering the company’s offer.  Methodology organizes the selling organization’s effort to facilitate a customer buying decision.

Sales process is measured by activities, which can be measured by any current CRM system I’ve ever heard of.  Methodology is about selling behaviors; only a few exceptional CRMs track behaviors, although most can be modified to do so.

Sales process, as simple activities, can generally be learned and mastered via a straightforward “knowledge transfer” class of training.  Methodology involves behavior change, and requires some element of coaching to lock in behavior change.

Process adoption and compliance results in selling efficiency, whereas methodology focuses on building customer-perceived value of your offer.  Great methodology drives customer value, which makes selling more effective. Efficiency and effectiveness can both drive up sales, but in different ways.  Efficiency might mean churning more prospects through a low close-ratio process each month.  Effectiveness could mean increasing the close ratio.  They aren’t mutually exclusive. They are synergistic.

Don’t Confuse the Two.  Don’t Limit Yourself to Either/Or.

I hope that you found this compare and contrast article useful.  Process and Methodology are both worthwhile pursuits. I help clients with both, and they feel different.  Please comment below, or contact me directly if you have any detailed questions.

To your success!