Biz Coach Steve

Category: Entrepreneur

  • 7 Steps to the Perfect Social Media Plan

    Do you dream about the perfect social media plan? The perfect social media template? Many business leaders wanting to get social dream about it.  They think they need it. The social media magic template. The one that includes the perfect strategy, tactics and themselves as the social hero of their company and social superstar of their market niche!

    You know the social media template I am talking about.  The one that will help you see a positive return on investment where everything is measurable and justifiable to stakeholders. The one that will make your employees scream with delight and as a result enable you grow your business even faster!

    The question is… does the perfect social media template or strategy for your business exist?

    A perfect strategy or template, well probably not! A good template and structure, yes!

    Do you want the answer? Are you ready for the top 7 tips to develop a social media strategy that will make your ROI zoom?

    Here ya go…

    Step 1: Do your own research on how to best leverage social media to meet business goals and objectives. Don’t be on every social media platform. Find the right ones for your business.

    Step 2: Develop a business and integrated marketing plan inclusive of goals and objectives. Be sure to focus clearly on your target market segments with a goal of knowing them and getting in their head the best you possibly can.

    Step 3: If you don’t have the skills and knowledge of social media internally, hire the agency or consultant to help you integrate social media into your business. Be sure that they understand integrated marketing, the importance of setting goals and objectives and can help you develop and execute a plan to meet yours! Refuse to accept a list of random acts of social media (RAMs). If the plan is not integrated then the RAMs will eat your ROI for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

    Step 4: Integrate social media into your business plan with a focus on leveraging social media to support your business goals and objectives. Your business plan may need to be adjusted based upon your new findings and research of the social media landscape.

    Step 5: Develop an integrated social media strategy, approach and plan that best supports your business goals and objectives. Just like your marketing plan, have a detailed social media plan. When, where, what, how you are going to post content. What is that content? Be detailed in your social media plan

    Step 6: Execute the integrated marketing, social media and business plan.  DO IT!  Don’t put your social medial plan in a drawer and forget about it. Act on it and measure the results.

    Step 7: Continuously analyze, measure and refine your approach, strategies and tactics based upon achievement to goals and objectives. Things will change based on the data you receive from your social media plan, be ready to make those adjustments to get the ROI you are looking for.

    Now, start on Step 1 and start researching social media platforms that are relevant to your business and where your customers are.  Then go through the other steps to build your perfect social media plan.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business.

    Contact Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • 10 Easy Ways to Resist Change

    Having worked with many owners, leaders, managers and employees and a theme that keeps coming up is how to deal with change. The standard way of dealing with change in most workplaces is to get really upset and run around in great distress. Many people dwell on how things used to be and clutch desperately onto the old ways of doing things. In one business where I had to change the culture, everyone told me “but, that’s the way we have always done it.”  My response was the same as well. Doing that way is why the business is failing and we need to change how it is done so everyone has a job in 6 months. This dynamic usually happens because leaders and organizations do not have the systems in place to welcome change or view it as an opportunity for growth.

    Many people fear change. Change can be scary and daunting but what I’ve noticed affects workplaces negatively is how they deal with the situation. People don’t consciously try to complicate things, it’s just that they don’t know what to do and very often their leaders aren’t helping them through the challenging times.  The next time you’re experiencing change in your organization make sure that you do the following things to make it more difficult.

    1. Pretend it’s not happening.  The put your head in the sand and hope the change blows over.

    2.  Stubbornly keep doing what you’ve always done. No matter what is said and done, just keep doing the it way you’ve always done and hopefully no one will notice.

    3.  Whatever you do, don’t change your perspective.  Stay on your course. Do not look at anything from another perspective.

    4.  Complain to as many people as you can. My favorite. Be the poison in the water. Why not, the squeaky wheel gets the attention.

    5.  Don’t buy-in to new ways of doing things. Blockbuster loves this one. The world is changing and don’t buy into the hype that it is changing.

    6.  Actively resist doing anything differently.  No matter what do NOT try anything different.

    7.  Stay nervous at all times. Be that long tailed cat in a room full of rockers. By being nervous you can spread some panic to those that do want to change.

    8.  Run around aimlessly. Like the old FedEx commercial. Busy being busy. This way people may think you are changing, when you are really just spinning your tires in mud.

    9.  Feed into the hysteria as often as possible.  Find others with the same fears as you and really build the hysteria- just like the media does.

    10. Don’t offer any solutions.  Remember you need to be the problem and not the solution. Giving a solution means you are open to the change and that is not good.

    I know I have seen all these 10 things being done withing businesses that are trying to change for the better. But, if you do these ten things, you’ll find that you will reverse the rotation of the earth and everything will go back to how it was. Realistically, you will have little to no impact on the changes going on which really leaves it up to you to decide how you’re going to deal with what’s actually happening. You have the ability to take even the worst situation and focus it any way you want. You choose whether the change is a tragedy or an opportunity. It’s just like when you want to support your point of view, you can always find someone to support it on the Internet, but maybe not support it in real life. By resisting the change, you will actually cause change, in that you will have to look for another J.O.B. If you are the owner and resist change, then you will probably have to close the doors to your business.

    The world changes. Your customers preferences changes. Buying habits change. Technology changes. Economics change. Regulations change. And so much more.  Smart leaders expect change and need to plan for it in order to grow their businesses.

    What will you do to welcome change and use it to grow and succeed?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business.

    Contact Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • How to Be More Persuasive

    What will make you more persuasive? Thinking less about what you want and more about what you deliver for others. Think about delivering benefit instead of trying to win over your clients/prospects.

    A benefit exchange is the heart of persuasion. It answers the question from the radio station-WIIFM, “What’s in it for me?” for the person you are seeking to persuade. In other words, it’s a benefit you promise in exchange for someone taking your desired action.

    The old school way of marketing is nothing like WIIFM. It was clearly a neglected concept in communicating a business’s products and services to the market. But benefit exchanges are useful for all kinds of situations, such as getting someone at work to agree to your proposal, inspiring people to change their habits or compelling someone to buy your product.

    We so often get the benefit exchange wrong. The number one error is we talk about attributes vs. benefits. We get lost in the qualities of an idea or a product rather than translating those attributes into the benefits they deliver for a prospect or customer. Telling me that a proposal addresses a problem in workflow is citing an attribute; demonstrating how it saves money or increases efficiency is showing a benefit. Rack and pinion steering is an attribute of a car; responsiveness that makes you feel safer on the road is a benefit.

    Good benefit exchanges focus on what your audience wants – not what you want. That’s the second common error most small businesses make. Don’t fall into the trap of communicating based on the benefits you desire. Think from the perspective of those you want to influence and speak to that world view.

    Those are ways we go wrong. So how do we do it right? If you want to be more persuasive, here are five ways to build a strong benefit exchange and win hearts and minds in the process.

    Make the Benefit Immediate: Few of us take action based on a benefit that we expect to receive in the far future. It is human nature to seek instant satisfaction over distant gratification. How can you make your case that if someone does what you want, they will reap immediate rewards? Answer the question: what will be better tomorrow?

    Make It Personal: A compelling benefit needs to make people feel their lives will be better as individuals or within their tight circles of friends, family, community or work. At the end of the day, the personal connection, not the grand concept, grabs our attention. Make sure you’re focused on why your agenda is specifically relevant to the person you wish to persuade.

    Speak to Your Audience’s Values: We can’t easily change what other people believe, but by plugging into their existing mind-set, we unleash great power behind our message. Make sure the benefit you are communicating is something others seek – not just what you want. Those two things are rarely the same, but we often imagine they are.

    Know What You’re Up Against: Think competitively about your benefit. Is it better than what people get for doing nothing – or something else instead? Don’t forget there’s a reason people aren’t taking the action you seek. They may be deriving benefits from those alternate behaviors. How can you shape a benefit better than sticking to the status quo?

    Be Real: Last, you need to make sure your benefit exchange is credible and honest. People need to believe in what you communicate. Ask someone who is respected to back you up. Or show other people gaining the promised benefit. Or tell a good story that is a true example of the benefit in action. You want to persuade by keeping your promises.

    If people aren’t doing what you want, you may to speak to someone and get an outside perspective. Maybe you are thinking the WIIFM is you, when the WIFFM is your customers. What outcomes are you providing to your prospects and clients?  How will you and your company’s products or services solve their problems, needs and wants?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business.

    Contact Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • Six Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business

    Do you have what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur? Many people jump the cubicle (leave corporate JOBS in pursuit of being their own boss) and may have the motivation and desire.  But, do they have all the other skills, education, focus and money to make the jump? Here are six simple things to consider.

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    1) Do you believe you have what it takes?

    We don’t mean personal characteristics — or not just personal characteristics, anyway. Do you believe you have all the skills, energy, money, people, and knowledge to start a business? Founders who carefully identify and evaluate their resources in pursuit of a well-defined goal display “entrepreneurial self-efficacy,” a trait many academics believe to be the best predictor of success. “It’s situationally specific confidence — ‘I strongly believe that I have all the resources I need, and here is what they are,’ ” says J. Robert Baum, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. “Overconfidence, by contrast, is partially caused by the absence of self-efficacy. ‘Let’s get going. I just know I can do this.’ “

    2) Are you able to let other people down?

    A founder may set out in a rowboat, but pretty soon, he is piloting a cabin cruiser with investors and employees on board and their families huddled belowdecks. Risking your own fortunes is easy compared with risking the fortunes of those who believe in you. “These people may not completely understand the business,” says Baum. “They may not understand the level of risk. But they think they’ll be OK because you are so smart. Breaking their dreams is very painful.”

    A business owner walked out in the middle of the road and stood there, half hoping a car would end his misery. He was thinking of all the people who had risked their livelihoods for him. He thought, I have sold this dream to them, and now I am going to let them down.

    3) How do you handle setbacks?

    When you are smiling, the whole company smiles with you. In the book Resonant Leadership: Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee explain that emotions are contagious: Morale rises and falls with the mood of the leader. Consequently, people who succumb to black moods or depression can fatally infect their own companies.

    Because some people have an inflated idea of their resilience, perform a reference check on yourself — ask people who know you well how you handle adversity. See if you are the type of person who needs to retreat for a period to recharge, which is not possible in most business. Are you the type of person that if you have a very high sense of responsibility and you take setbacks hard, you have to know that and be honest with yourself about being in business for yourself.

    4) Are you really an inventor, rather than an entrepreneur?

    Raising a child is generally more challenging than creating a child, and the same is true of new products. Some people mistake the act of invention for the tough part. Too many times, these inventor types spend an inordinate amount of time on the patent and making the prototype just so, then they think once they’ve done that, the world will beat a path to their doorstep.

    It’s also hard for some people to entrust their brainchildren to designers, engineers, and marketers. Entrepreneurs like Sir James Dyson, the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner who surrounded himself with Britain’s best engineers, and “Caractacus Potts types” – a reference to the eccentric soloist who creates the namesake flying car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Product development is a team sport. Inventors don’t get that. Entrepreneurs do.

    5) Can you accept that your company may outgrow you?

    Some entrepreneurs love to brag that they don’t need an exit strategy, because they are not going anywhere. But at some point, your business may need you less than you need it. That’s particularly true at fast-growth companies, at which entrepreneurs may not have enough time to develop the necessary leadership and business skills.

    Sometimes founders bring in presidents or senior executives from the outside, only to sabotage them. They do it by not giving them the necessary information. They do this by not stepping back and by involving themselves with managers in a way that is inappropriate in the chain of command. They can be disruptive during meetings.

    6) When you look in the mirror, does an entrepreneur look back?

    If so, and if that’s the reason you are starting a company, beware. Many traits-persistence, creativity, and risk tolerance among them, are commonly ascribed to entrepreneurs. But having those traits doesn’t much improve the odds that you will succeed.

    Research into entrepreneurs’ personal traits with things like persistence and need for achievement explain only about 5 percent to 10 percent of the difference between people who start companies and those who don’t. Entrepreneurs are less important than external predictors like the spirit of the times, the economy, and changes within an industry.

    Trying to predict success in entrepreneurship based on personal traits is a fool’s game.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business.

    Contact Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • What is your EXIT strategy?

    Stephen Covey stated, “Think with the end in mind.”

    Many business owners are so excited and overwhelmed that they often overlook a big part of their business, operating plan.  Their exit plans.

    You may finally figure your target market. Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Your business structure and much more, but you have not figured out how it all ends.

    Here are the most common ways to end a business:

    • Your business dies. You must shut the doors. Usually due to lack of cash.
    • You die in your business-literally.  Do you have will set up on what will happen with the business when that day comes?
    • You get bought out. You worked hard over the years. Put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into your business, now you want to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Do you have a plan to sell? Is your business sellable?
    • You buy a business and they assume control of the merged company. Nice, what are you going to do next?
    • You pass it to a family member (legacy). Most family members do not want YOUR business. The ones that do, it may turn into a legal battleground.
    • You voluntarily shut it down. Could be due to some internal or external situation, but usually must happen rapidly and the outcome is usually not too good.

    The sale or transition of a business will likely be the single largest and most important financial transaction of a business owner’s life………and its level of success will impact the rest of their life in retirement.

    Mapping out a successful plan to exit the business can help business owners:

    • Avoid unnecessary or excessive taxes.
    • Minimize risk during the transition.
    • Realize the full value for their life’s work.
    • In recent years only 20 to 30% of businesses listed for sale ended up being sold. Many of them did not sell for what the owners initially thought they were worth.
    • The failure to plan and manage succession well is the greatest threat to the survival of a family business:
      • 41% of family businesses plan to pass ownership and management of their business to the next generation in the family
      • Yet…only 30% of family businesses last into the 2nd generation, only 12% into the 3rd generation and only 3% into the 4th generation and beyond. (Family Firm Institute)

    The key to exit planning is that it isn’t actually about the exit itself. It’s about the planning for the exit. The staging process that leads to a happy ending for the business owner, bringing them maximum value for the business when it’s sold.

    Here are some exit statistics:

    • Most business are owned by nearing retirement baby boomers 63% of all businesses. The youngest are now 56.
    • 80-90% of their wealth is tied up in their businesses. They have NO retirement plan.
    • 75% plan to transition over the next 10 years; 48% in the next 5 years.
    • Represents a transfer of 4,500,000 businesses and over $10 trillion of wealth.
    • 78% have no exit strategy team on board.

    How successful are we at transitioning businesses?

    • 12 months after selling, 3 out of 4 business owners surveyed “profoundly regretted” the decision. (Price Waterhouse)
    • 70-80% of businesses put on the market don’t sell. (Business Reference Guide, T. West)
    • 95% of M&A professionals believe a business owners unrealistic expectations of company value are the biggest obstacle to sale or transfer. (AM&AA)
    • Private companies are not generating returns on investment greater than their costs of capital. (Private Capital Markets Study, Rob Slee)

    A successful business exit strategy includes 5 key ingredients:

    1. A written exit plan, and related documentation, based on the owner’s objectives.
      1. A team of professional advisors to each help with their areas of expertise (Business Coach, Attorney, CPA/Accountant, Financial Advisor, Banker, Insurance Advisor, Business Broker, etc.)
      1. Positive cash flow in the business and determining a quantified business value.
      1. A strong management team.
      1. Enough time to prepare for a successful exit (typically planning 3-5 years, minimum, in advance of an exit…the more time prior to the owner’s planned retirement age, the better)

    Are you prepared to exit?

    How are you planning on exiting your business?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, Certified Business Coach, Author, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business.

    Contact Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you get the results you want in your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail

    Sad to say this but the stats don’t lie. The statistics for a new business to succeed is not too positive. Twenty-four percent of new business fail in the first two year. Almost 50% of those remaining fail within the first five years. Which leaves about 8 out of 100 new business that are still around after 10 years.

    The top ten reasons small businesses fail are simple and all can be avoided. But most business owner do not seek help and avoid the harsh realities of their own business. The order of the list has been discussed with many fellow business owners, mentors, coaches and consultants and we feel this order and the years in which a business fails are accurate.

    1. Cash flow: Hands down the number one reason why small businesses fail. You need to know how to track the money coming into and out of your business — even a profitable venture will flounder if it runs short of cash. In addition, you must learn to make cash flow projections that will help you decide how much money you can afford to spend and warn you of impending trouble.
    2. Lack of clarity: Most new business owner does not have a clear vision for their business, and do not have a target market. They are shooting a shotgun in the wind and not shooting at anything at all. If you don’t know who you service, what their problems are and how your product and service satisfy their need-your business will die an ugly death.
    3. Sloppy or ineffective marketing: Contrary to the popular cliché, few products or services “sell themselves.” If you don’t have time to market your product effectively, hire an experienced person to do it for you. Marketing keeps your products selling and money flowing into your business. It’s crucial that you do it well. Know your target market and stay focused on them. Forget everyone else.
    4. Unsustainable product or service: If you don’t have a market for your product or service, then you have no sales. The true purpose of business is to satisfy a want or need with your product or service in exchange for money. If your target market is 1 out of every 10 million people, you will not be around long. Once those people have your product or service will they rebuy?
    5. Inadequate planning: Start with realistic but precise goals for your business, including deadlines. For example, don’t just say that you want to increase sales; instead, decide that you want sales to reach $100,000 by next holiday season. Then write down the steps you can take to meet those goals on time and set deadlines for completing those steps. Consult your goal list every day, and make sure you are doing what you need to do to meet your objectives.
    6. Procrastination. When you own a small business, you will find that tasks and paperwork pile up like snowdrifts on your desk. Putting them off is like piling up debt; eventually they could overwhelm you. Small business owners like distractions that keep them from money making activities. Stay focused, have goals, move forward in your business.
    7. Incompetent employees: Hire only workers who are essential to your operation. When you do hire employees, make sure they’re well trained and able to complete the tasks expected of them. And remember that happy employees make good workers — try to create a work environment that keeps your staff happy and motivated. Sometimes the incompetent employee is the owner.
    8. Ignoring customers´ needs: Once you attract customers, you’ll have to work hard to keep them. Customer service should be a key aspect of your business. If you don’t follow through with your customers, they’ll find someone who will. Most small business are horrible at following up with customers. This can set you apart from your competition.  Remember, not customers, no revenue, which leads to no business.
    9. Ignoring the competition: Consumer loyalty has declined sharply in recent years. Today, customers go where they can find the best products and services, even if that means breaking off long-term business relationships. Monitor your competitors, and don’t be ashamed to copy their best ideas (assuming that doesn’t mean violating patent law). Better yet, devote some time each week or month to devising new methods, products or services for your firm. You need to show value in your products and services. Being the low-price leader, means you also need to be the low-cost leader to win.
    10. Lack of versatility: You may be great at making hats or painting houses or fixing computers, but that’s not enough to make your millinery shop or house painting business or computer consultancy successful. Successful business owners tend to be adept at a number of tasks, from accounting to marketing to hiring. You need to be well versed in all aspects of your business. Hire people to do the tasks you do not like to do or are unskilled to do.

    Bonus: A closed mind: Everyone goes into business with some preconceptions — don’t be surprised if you find that many of yours are wrong. Look for mentors who can give you advice and run your ideas by them before you make important financial commitments. Read books and magazines about small business, visit business-related Web sites and network with your peers in the business community.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • How to be strategic in your business

    One reason that many businesses fail, is that they have no strategic plan.

    They are always chasing a sale, or marketing/advertising just to be marketing or advertising with no real purpose. Yes, we get it.  You want more sales, but your marketing and advertising is not strategic towards the goals of your business. It has no real purpose; it does not have any strategy that is in alignment with the goals of your business.  That is one of the many reasons you are not getting an ROI on your marketing/advertising investment.

    Strategic management is a widely studied field because it is through strategy that organizations attempt to reach their goals and out-think the competition. Thinking strategically requires research, analysis, and forethought in order to create a plan for how you will proceed as an organization.  Most small business owners do not take time out of their schedule for strategic planning.  They have no strategic “game plan.”

    The process of crafting and implementing an organizational “game plan” for:

    • Creating customer value
    • Sustaining competitive advantages
    • Achieving performance targets

    Look at your business and ask yourself, your team, division, department and then as your organization as a whole:

    • Are we doing things, right?
    • Are wee doing the right things?

    Next, you need to create a plan for how you will make choices in the future that align with your strategic plan. You must be willing to identify and make changes to the way you currently think and operate so that you are truly guided by the strategic plan you adopted for your business.

    Here are six P’s of thinking strategically:

    1. Purpose: Decision as a collective group. Without purpose or a mission, you don’t know what you’re working towards. This is the goal of what you want to achieve. What you want your business to be in the future. A strategic plan is a guide for when you cannot remember what you are working towards. When changes happen fast, it may not be easy to keep up with them and it’s very easy to get sidetracked from your goal. This is when you need that roadmap to keep you on track with your actions and activities.
    • Plan: Actions that you have consciously intended. You need to develop a solid, specific action plan to achieve your goals.  Each goal you set requires some form of strategy to reach it. Each goal should, in turn, be somehow forwarding the goals of the strategic plan. If you and your employees have a goal with specific actions to reach the goal, it will improve work performance overall and move the business forward. I.E. If the goal is to “improve customer service” that is not specific. What you think that might be, may not be the way your staff thinks it should be. But, if the goal is clear, “reduce customer complaints by 50% over a five-month period” that is specific, measurable, realistic and timebound.
    • Ploy: What you will do to out-do the competition. You need to be familiar with your competition. You need to identify how you compare to them in the areas that are important to your customers. Part of your plan is to strengthen your weaknesses, highlight your strengths, pursue customer where your strengths are the most important decision criteria.
    • Pattern: Establishing success as a constant action over time. One useful method is to incorporate items into individual performance goals that you have for you and your team. I.E. Review existing performance goals and measure to determine whether or not they are in alignment with the overall strategic plan of the organization. In one business, we tied performance goals to the total output of the business. The employees got a bonus to the business achieved those goals, but their own personal goals where tied to that success.
    • Positioning: Creating and holding a marketplace presence. Despite your enthusiasm for all that your product or service and do for a customer, the fact is that there is only a certain portion of the population that will every purchase your product or service. This is because not everyone can benefit from your product offering.  You need to know who your customers are, and what they are most likely to perceive as a benefit from your product or service. Then concentrate your time, effort and money on marketing to those people.
    • Push: Goals that stretch the organization-push them outside the boundaries of your existing comfort zone.  Whether or not you manage a team, you need to take on the challenge of pushing it to the next level of achievement. Start with an assessment on you and your team to determine where you are now as well as what is you and your team’s strengths and weaknesses. Then you can determine the appropriate action to develop yourself and your team to be high performing.  Organization that sit back on their accomplishments get left in the dust by those businesses that are continually evolving. Ever heard of Blockbuster?

    A strategic plan is like a game plan for you and your team to follow. Your team wants to know they have a leader that knows where the team is headed. The plan gives you something that your team can rally around and get excited about. It helps them feel connected to the mission of the organization and to feel that they can make a contribution helping the organization to reach the desired outcome.

    What are your businesses strategic plans?

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking #keynotespeaker #meetingprofs #eventprofs #meetingstoday

  • Don’t stop working during the holidays

    The Holiday Season is upon us and for sales professionals and sales managers this time of year adds special challenges for maintaining focus on sales productivity.

    Being an entrepreneur has lots of challenges between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The familiar music, parties, seeing old friends, and spending time with family. In the midst of a joyous season the sales environment can be brutal.

    During the holiday’s salespeople and business owners struggle to maintain activity targets while prospects and customers routinely put off decisions until the New Year. The good news is, despite the challenges, you can take control, maintain your focus, and still close deals. The key is in staying true to the fundamentals of selling and maintaining self-discipline combined with a sprinkle of creativity.

    One of the hardest things about selling during the holiday season is getting customers to act on buying decisions. They say they just want to wait until the New Year to make any decisions. To them it makes logical sense to wait. Far too many salespeople willingly accept this excuse as logical too. However, if you’ve been around selling long enough you know, by the time you get to January, most of these deals will be cold.

    To have any chance of closing these deals you have to strike while the iron is hot. You cannot allow emotions to wane. So, during this time of year you have to give your prospects and customers a more compelling reason to make a decision now than to wait until later. This means getting creative with your offer, price, value added services, or signing bonuses. You may have to give up more to get the deal done than during other times of the year. 

    In sales, like it or not, activity is everything. If you are not prospecting, questioning, presenting, and closing you will fail – no matter what time of year it is. Of course with all of the wonderful (and not so wonderful) distractions of the holidays, it can be easy to slack-off, let your self-discipline slip move away from your normal daily routine. 

    This slip has two consequences. In the short-term it hurts your closing ratio during the month of December. In the long-term it impacts your sales pipeline during January, February, and March which can have a major impact on your future income.

    To keep this from happening to you, it is critical that you sit down with your daily planner right now and ensure that you have your calendar blocked properly for daily prospecting and lead generation, as well as information gathering, presentations, demos, and closing meetings. Take into account all of your holiday activities and build them into your planner. You may have to do some workarounds, but the key here is to get everything planned out in advance. To stay on track set daily activity targets and commit to reviewing those targets each morning and afternoon. You will be amazed at how powerful this forward planning process is for keeping you on track and focused during the holidays.

    Most importantly, by planning in advance and developing creative ways to close more business, you will find that you feel less stress, cash bigger commission checks, and have plenty of time to enjoy the holidays with the ones you care about the most.

    One thing I cannot stress enough is to be open as much as possible during the holiday season and answer your phone. Just that alone will separate you from the rest of the pack. Keep moving forward, do not take the season off and your business will benefit in the first quarter of next year.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking

  • What is your USP? And why is this important

    What is your USP?

    You may have heard that question at some point when you were building your business or starting up. USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition.

    In very simple terms, why should I buy from you versus anyone else?  What makes you different? Unique?

    After presenting the Scores ABC’s of Starting a Business workshop for years, it still blows my mind how many people do not have a clear focus on what their business is and who problems they solve and to whom are they solving those problems for.  We hear extra filler junk, such as. “I am like the UBER of XXX.” So, what I heard is that you have a billion-dollar valuation, are in the debt over a billion dollars and have not been profitable and probably will never be profitable. Not good.

    This was from an INC magazine article. “A Unique Selling Point is a feature or a characteristic of a product that makes it stand out of the masses and allows the product to look more exclusive/valuable to the customer. The unique selling proposition is often the crucial factor why a customer bought a specific product from a specific company (A), rather than a comparable product with similar features of another company (B). Simple put: the USP’s are the unique benefits a product offers its purchasers.”

    So how can you create your own very compelling USP?

    Simple. Follow this simple formula and create your own USP. Think of it as your elevator pitch.

    First, write down your target market. Now you may have more than one, but not more than three. Why? Because if your message is trying to be everything to everyone, no one cares, and no one wants to hear it. They want someone to solve their problems-not the worlds. Be specific on who your market is.  If it’s dentists, then what kind of dentist? Orthodontist? Periodontist? General? Oral? Etc.  Be specific.  “My company works with orthodontists.”

    Next, write down at least 25 problems your target customer has, then write down 10 more. This will really help in in your business down the road. Identify the top 3 problems your target market has based on your list. How do you know what the top 3 problems are? Hopefully, you know why your customers are doing business with you. If not, ask them what problems/challenges your product/services solves for them.  If you don’t have customers yet, then meet with a mentor to have them help you find those top 3 challenges. You also may know what 3 challenges you want to solve for your customers-but it must be in alignment with THEIR needs.  I.E. Orthodontists problems are; patients not showing up for appointments, potential clients not having insurance to get braces (cost) and finding good staff.


    Now write down at least one solution to each one of the problems you outlined in the last step. Be specific. Using our dentist as an example; send out email, text and voice mail reminders for the appointment, providing another insurance solution if they don’t have insurance, use a systematic process to hire great staff.

    Let’s put it all together.

    “My company works with elite orthodontists who have challenges obtaining new patients and attracting high level staff. We help them develop acquisition and retention strategies to build their practice and their team.”

    You may be thinking, how did I get that USP from the exercise. It’s simple. THEIR problem is getting new patients in because they don’t have insurance, keeping patients and getting new staff. The USP says that in a language that is speaking to the orthodontist-not to anyone else. Now, if another type of dentist heard this, would they want to know more from you?   Absolutely. You can alter your USP to your market.

    I.E. “My company works with elite dentists who have challenges obtaining new patients and attracting high level staff. We help them develop acquisition and retention strategies to build their practice and their team.”

    See how that works.  You must speak to your audience. It’s NOT about you. It’s about who you serve, what are their problems and how are you solving them.

    Stop being the Uber, Apple, Tesla, Google, or whatever other company you want to compare yourself to. They have their USP. Here are a few.

    Uber: Ride when you want, where you want

    Apple:  We provide a lifestyle with our products

    FedEx: When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight

    Coke: The real thing

    Google: Access the world from your fingertips

    You are NOT them. They have established themselves in the market, you are working on establishing yourself. Speak to your audience, be unique, be you. They do not have to define their market; it has already been defined.

    Create your USP today.  Be clear.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking

  • The old run-a-round

    How many times have you encountered an extreme run-a-round when you trying to get an answer from someone?  I bet we all have many horror stories of being transferred around from customer service representative to customer service representative.  Or when you are in the business and the person behind the counter tells you that you have to call an 800 number to get your question or issue resolved?  How about when you ask an employee a question and they don’t know the answer but then just disappear on you-not knowing if they are asking someone else or just hiding from you.

    As someone that has pressured my employees to provide the best customer service experience as possible these kinds of customer service nightmares drive me crazy.  They are fully 100% avoidable, but only if the business owner or manager wants them to be avoidable.  Many times, employees are not given proper customer service training.  They are given a handbook that they never read, and it has some paragraphs about customer service that they employee should follow.  This is far from being adequate.  Business today (especially in a downturn economy) really need to focus on customer service.  It’s free, it’s easy, and its great customer service will set your business apart from your competitors’. 

    So, some of you are saying “How”?  How can I instill great customer service in my front-line employees?  How can I get my staff to provide great customers service?  Simple.  It all starts at the top.  Everyone in your organization must be properly trained in customer service skills.  This even includes the folks in the accounting department.  Everyone that comes in contact with your business, whether they are the customer, someone picking something up for the customer, your vendors, your business partners, the delivery drivers – EVERYONE is your customer! 

    Right now, I am going to focus on how to eliminate the run-a-around in a few simple examples.

    1. A customer asks the cashier if they purchase 10 items could they get a discount.  Simple and straight forward.  Not your everyday question, but instead of the employee going “I don’t know.  Why do you want to buy 10 of those?” or the employee just walking away from the customer and not saying anything, train them to follow simple procedures.  Have the employee act (not overdoing it) enthused that someone would like to purchase 10 of an item.  Then inform them “I don’t know, but please wait here a moment and I will get the manager who could answer that question for you-I will be right back.”  The employee informed the customer on what they should do and what he/she will do to get their question resolved.
    • Now if the manager does not have the answer and needs to ask the owner or their supervisor, here’s how that should be handled.  Manager- “I’m sorry I do not have the answer to your question at this time.  Here’s what I can do for you.  Please let me put aside 10 of the items for you and get your contact information and I will contact the owner/supervisor and get an answer for you within 24 hours.”  Once again, the manager informed the customer of what they are going to do to get the question answered and gave the customer instructions on what will be done.

    Starting to sound like the run-a-around again doesn’t it?  The difference is simple communication.  The run-a-around that most business give the customer all steams on the employee not knowing who to go to in situations.  We used to provide customer service training to all the department at once.  This way a person in department A knows who to contact in department B in case there is a question that department B handles.  All the phones had a list of who to contact from each department in case these scenarios arose.

    Now, the best way to handle this is to empower your employees. In this case, maybe the front-line employee does reach out to their manager who does have the knowledge to answer the customers inquiry and for the front-line employee learn something new about those deep policies that are in the business. Then the manager can inform everyone on what just occurred and let them know what the procedure is for a similar situation. You cannot train everyone on every little scenario, but as they come up you can train everyone. This will strengthen your customer service skills and win over your customers.

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    Steve Feld, MBA, provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. Steve also speaks to organizations, conducts workshops and training.  Focusing on the lead generation and revenue creation to get growth results for the business. Contact Steve today to see how he can assist you grow your business, [email protected], or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today. #bizcoachstevef #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #business #smallbiz #coaching #businessowner #businesscoach #leadership #marketing #speaking