I hear the economy is back.

From the sounds of the fireworks this past weekend, I’d say the economy is back and people are spending again.  I am not talking about the big city fireworks you hear at about 10pm July 4^th, I am talking about the little neighborhood shows you hear going off just after dusk and lasting late into the night.

 

I normally take what the “economist on the TV and radio” say as the country as a whole, I take what I see and hear every day to measure the local economy. I am not kidding when I tell you just in my 5 block radius of my home that I heard well over $4,000 worth of fireworks each night over the past 4 nights. That is pretty significant when you think our town festival spends around $5,000 to put on a 20 minute fireworks show.

 

People are spending. People are buying. Just look around at the new or newer cars that are around or the lines at the expensive car washes. Take a look at the number of campers on the roads and in the driveways of the areas you drive.  People are splurging for things they want and that shows the economy is back.

 

Don’t let “bad economy” stop you from doing business. Many business owners I speak with like to point and say “it’s still a bad economy out there”. I am here to tell you its not – listen for yourself. Look for yourself! Ask people you know or even that you don’t know what they think of the economy. Actually don’t ask, just look. Look in their carts at the grocery store; see what people are spending on. When you are out to eat, take a mental note of the parking lot, is it full and what kinds of cars are parked there. Look at the home improvements you are doing on your home or your neighbors.

 

If you don’t believe me, just open your windows tonight, turn off your air conditioning and listen to the fireworks in your neighborhood (a lot more during the weekend). You too will hear what I am hearing. Believe me, people are spending money; just ask yourself if you are “asking for your share”. If not, call me I can help 651-321-8348 Jimmy Francis is a Business Coach with YouProfit Business Coaching 

If you do what you need, you will always be able to do what you want.

If you do what you need, you will always be able to do what you want. 

I read that last week and took a moment to write it down and think about it. It is a statement that rings true on so many levels. I read it aloud several times and the thought that first came into my mind was, my kids. How perfect is this statement when used in the situation where the kids are asking for a treat and mom and I keep asking for the toys to get put away. “Josephina, if you do what you need (clean up toys) you will be able to get what you want (treat)”. “And if you don’t, Dad will end up cleaning the toys up (if mom doesn’t get there first) and I will be able to get what you want, your treat” this is hard to do with a 6 and 4 year old.

The second thought I had was using this same phrase with my clients. Many times business owners KNOW what needs to be done but they just don’t do it. And then, as most of us know, the stuff that NEEDS to get done does not get done so all the WANTS never get fulfilled. “If you do what you need, you will always be able to do what you want”.

For me, as a Business Coach, I also need to follow this phrase. That is why it has been printed out (like all my favorite quotes) and put on the computer where I can read it daily. As a person, like my kids, that wants stuff I know I must kick things in gear sometimes and DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE so that I can get the things that I want. So I also printed off a beautiful picture of a cabin and put that up on my goal wall so that I do what needs to be done to get what I want.

Jimmy Francis is a Business Coach Call 651-321-8348

How to get more leads.

I was thinking about this today. So I went to the Google and typed in just that “how to get more leads” and in 36 seconds a list About 930,000,000 results containing the words or the topic. Try it for yourself and you will have at your fingertips millions of ways to get more leads.

You can buy them; you can read about them, you can optimize your website to get more of them. You can cold call; you can ask your friends or customers for names that you can call on. You can do many things to get more leads, but what is the right one?

 I don’t believe there is any one right way to get more leads. The thing about leads is what you do with them once you have them. Call them over the phone, E-mail them or visit in person are all ways to follow up on a lead.

 The advice I give my clients is “prepare the path the lead will take”. In other words, create the system you will use once you have the lead. Prepare scripts and process so that you and your team can handle the lead efficiently. Practice the system and the scripts by role playing and getting comfortable with the process to ensure it is not only meeting your needs, but answering any possible objection the lead might have. A lead is useless to you and your company if you don’t do something with it. So plan out what you will do once you get the leads and then consult the Google for one of its many options for you to “get more leads”. 

Jimmy Francis Business Coach 651-321-3848

Positive = Attitude

I had a customer tell me last week “today is crappy” and I said in reply “why do you think that is?” He then went on and on about all the “problems” he had in business. Employees not doing what they should and when they do they have a bad attitude. After I let him vent I asked “would you like my outside take on this?” He said yes and I pointed out that the problem with a bad attitude is it spreads and it starts with you”.  There was silence on the phone.

You see a lot of what happens in business is based on attitude. If you, the business owner, start your day with a grumpy attitude it spreads to all around you in the office.  The front desk person starts to answer the phone without a smile, the guy in shipping grumbles about his job and the fact there are so many outgoing orders he needs to ship. Sales people start to cop an attitude with customers that wont buy or cancel an order and it all started with the Boss walking in with a bad attitude.

I encouraged him to change his attitude but not make a big deal about it with the staff. I said come in a different door than you normally do, come in the back and greet the guys with a happy greeting.  I encouraged him to make a point of telling all his staff how happy he was that they were there and maybe point out a positive thing about the work they do.  I gave him a week to try it.

Well he called me today and thanked me for sending him a CD – Zig Ziglar’s “How to be a Winner” and told me (on a snowy April day) that “It’s a great day”. He understood how I kept a positive attitude every time he saw or spoke to me. But the best thing he said was his staff is also understanding they get to control their attitude and being positive impacts other people.  He shared stories about the front desk lady and the shipping guy making other peoples day better just by being positive with their short interaction.  He said the sales people don’t slam the phone down as much because they changed their attitudes about why the customers canceled orders.  But best of all he took ownership that his attitude was what started it all and that taking some action to change his was so simple but did so much.

So remember a positive attitude is something everyone should try to wear most of the time and people tend to take notice of it.

A Take Away From a Seminar

I was speaking at YouProfit Business Coaching’s Second Quarter Growth Seminar on Friday and at the end of these seminars Jon O’Malley, Founder of YouProfit Business Coaching, always asks the group “what one thing will you take away from this seminar?”

My take away was something that gave me MORE time. The idea I heard at this meeting along with 35 other small business owners was something that not only would allow me to spend more time with my family, but also give me much more time to work on my business. To do the important reading and studying that is required to grow as a business owner.  It wouldn’t cost me anything; in fact, it probably would save me a lot of money.  It was something that I could do by myself and did not require me to hire or outsource in order to give me back much needed time. The idea or take away was so simple; I wondered why I had not done it before.  It was something that I left that event and drove directly to my home and implemented.  Can you guess what it was?

I removed the Television sets from my house.

We had two televisions at our home, one in our bedroom and one in our living room. Both were unplugged and moved to a storage room in our house and I canceled the cable.

Think about it. How much time I will get back in just one day?

How much time would you get back?

Some suggested things to replace that time: Talk with your family or call someone you have not visited with, read that book you have always wanted to read. Study your industry reports or read that industry publication you have been paying for over the years but never really read it. Play board games, cards, go for walks, runs or finish home projects that have taken a back seat to the television.

I can tell you one thing; we filled a weekend without television. Did we miss it? Sure I am sure there was a part of us that had a desire to turn it on if it was there, but because I took it out we couldn’t.  Now, the Monday after, when the worlds news is more about bombings in Boston that I can hear on my car radio you can bet I will hug my kids a little longer and spend that extra time reading to them or playing their favorite board game. And when they go to bed, I can read that sales book to make me a better salesman, but only after I talk with my wife about life and all the really important things that Television didn’t allow me to do.

Sales Meetings

When you call all your people for a sales meeting, you’re taking away time they could have been closing deals. That’s why it is vital that you make these meetings worthwhile, both for the sales person and your company. Here are few tips to make the most of your sales meetings.

Set a clear objective.

When a top sales person walks into a sales meeting, the first question they asks themselves is “How is my time here going to increase my sales and make me money?” The biggest mistake sales managers make is not clearly answering that question, which leads to low engagement and frustration. To make the most of the meeting, establish your objective in advance and share it with all attendees. Once the goal has been set, keep the meeting laser-focused on it, so that each salesperson knows exactly why they are there.

Give plenty of notice.

This seems like a common courtesy, but I’m always surprised by how little time some people give their reps to prepare for a meeting. If you announce a sales meeting just before it’s scheduled to take place, you’ll often intrude on their schedules, potentially decreasing their sales. Then they will spend all of their time in the meeting figuring out how to make up the time and good reps won’t stick with a company that doesn’t respect their time. This can be eliminated by regularly holding meetings at the same time and on the same day of the week. If you don’t have a regular meeting day and time, poll your sales staff and pick one that works for the majority of the group and they will start to schedule meetings around this set time, avoiding many missed meetings.

Keep it short.

 Again, their time is as important as your time.  Frequently, sales meetings drag on and on. Make sure that you are considerate of the time employees are spending away from their regular work and family. Cut out all the other nonsense and stick closely to the objective.

Plan ahead.

If you’re going to cover new training material in the sales meeting, be sure to send some, if not all, of it to your reps ahead of time, and encourage them to look at the material before they arrive. This will speed up the learning process and allow you to focus on the more advanced areas of the training in the meeting. You could even give a short quiz at the beginning of the meeting to find out who did her homework and who didn’t. The results will tell you who’s committed to the business–and who isn’t.

These are just a few things to consider before you plan a meeting but will help you in getting the sales person to feel like their time and the content of the meeting is important to you.

More Time

People often complain about “not having enough time in the day” and I usually smile but I don’t agree with them. Sometimes, depending on the person, I say “well that is your fault isn’t it?” And it is.

I was the same way until I learned how to create my default schedule that allows me to plan my time and in return I have found that there is enough time in the day, when properly utilized.

Simple things like checking e-mail and answering phone calls can be one of the easiest things to change and will allow you for a more productive day.

Chet Holms teaches “touch it once and pass it on” and it really is simple when it comes to e-mail. #1 only open it when you can deal with it, this means when it comes to your “in box” plan the times to check and respond to email messages. #2 Touch it once, pass it on or delete it. There is nothing more frustrating to IT people when you have thousands of e-mails that you keep because you think you might need it later. If you haven’t passed it on to the person who needs it or delete it you end up with a full inbox and soon less space #3 Proactive not Reactive, this means you set times to read and respond to e-mail messages.

Try implementing these things into your daily schedule and you will soon see that you have more time than you think. Don’t do it and you will continue to get what you always got!