Month: March 2017

How much do you get done in a typical day? Have you ever conducted a time study on yourself? If you haven’t, you should, and when you do, you’ll likely be shocked at how much dead time you’ve got in your day.

Did you know that, on average, most people spend up to four hours per day checking email and poking around on social media? How much more productive could you be if you could somehow recapture all the slack time in your day?

There’s good news! You don’t have to attend an expensive seminar to learn to get the most out of each and every day. Just do the following:

Plan! It’s Everything.

Studies have shown that five minutes of planning can save you as much as thirty minutes of time when it comes to execution, so at the end of each work day, plan the next day out in detail. Create a list of actionable steps you’ll take to march toward whatever goals you’ve set for yourself.

Build Momentum

The best way to build momentum is to start the day with two tasks you can knock out quickly. As you organize your daily tasks, however, be aware that you’re most productive in the earliest part of the day, so be sure that the first few hours see you working on your most challenging tasks.

If you break them down appropriately, you’ll be able to knock out two small sub-parts of a complex task quickly, then dive headlong into a larger sub-task that relates back to one of your biggest challenges of the day. By lunchtime, you’ll have your toughest work behind you, and you’ll have built a tremendous amount of momentum that will carry you through the rest of the day.

Take Productivity Breaks

Even when you take breaks (and you should), don’t spend that time checking email or social media. Those things tend to suck you in, kill your momentum and take much more of your time than you realize.
Instead, spend your break time either updating your plan, or working on quick, easy tasks that will continue building your momentum.

Those three keys will do more to boost your productivity than anything else, and you can start today!

Everyone in business knows the value of the upsell or side-sell. Unfortunately, that’s the problem. Since everyone knows the “trick,” everybody is doing it. The reason? It works. It’s effective, but how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you make your upsell efforts succeed in a world swimming in similar offers? If it’s something you’re struggling with, the tips below will help!

Sell Your Expertise

Modern consumers don’t want to just buy things from a random vendor; they want a relationship with a trusted expert. Make sure you’re that person. Know everything about every product you sell, and about every upsell you recommend. Beyond that, know your competitors’ products just as well, and don’t be afraid to make a recommendation of something that somebody else sells if it will be best for your customers.

Sure, you might lose a little bit of money right then and there, but your reputation with your customers will be beyond reproach, and you’ll be the first person they contact for all their needs in the future.

Don’t Sell

This builds on the first point. It’s not enough to be an expert. Remember, your customers are looking for more than just a simple purchase. They want a relationship. Give them one. Be that person. Which would you prefer? To sell one thing to one customer one time, or to create a relationship that nets you a customer for life?

Attracting new customers is expensive. Retaining customers is as easy as giving them exactly what they want, and doing that better than anybody else. Do that.

Know Your Customers

This builds on the first two points. The difference between acting like you’re building a relationship with your customers and actually doing so is attention to detail. Listen. Talk. Learn.

Your customers are more than just your customers. They are (or can be) the source of new ideas, refinements and enhancements. By listening to your customers, you not only show that you genuinely care about them, but you also go a long way toward transforming them from customers into fans, and that is priceless.

If you do those things, your bottom line is guaranteed to increase.

As we know, every dollar matters. Every dollar counts. Budgeting is not glamorous or fun, but it’s absolutely essential if you are to financially succeed in the long run.

Unfortunately, most people think of budgeting as simply being a ledger of expenses and income. That’s part of it, sure. That’s the part your accountant attends to, and you need to know those numbers backwards and forward, but there are three other components to budgeting that are critical, and if you’re not doing these things, then you’re increasing your chances of failure.

Expect The Unexpected

It is true that in life, things happen. If your budget doesn’t include space and funds for unanticipated opportunities and events, then you have a potentially dangerous blind spot. That’s not good, and the first time something unexpected happens, it can send you, your family or your business into a tailspin.

Forecast

One of the best ways to utilize your budget is to treat it as a foundation. You can build on it to forecast the effects of various plans you have in the works.

Blending the facts of your budget with the expectation of future income streams gives you a more accurate picture of the potential outcomes of developing those new income streams. It gives you a clear picture of what you can and can’t afford to do.

Review

It’s not enough to simply write down and keep track of your income and expenses. If you want to make the best use of the data you’re collecting, periodic review is crucial. It’s the only way you can gain a real understanding of how you are doing over time, and it will allow you to spot potential problems while they’re small, and thus, easily fix them, rather than being taken by surprise simply because you didn’t have a firm understanding of the numbers.

Budgeting might not be fun, but it lies at the bedrock of every successful person. Even if you’ve got people to keep the books for you, you need to have a deep understanding of those numbers and what they mean for your future and your family.

It’s no secret that sales are the life blood of any company. It’s no secret that not all salesmen are created equally, but why do some salesmen just seem to be so much better at it than others?

Does it come down to training? Personality type? Age or gender?
Honestly, it’s probably none of those things.

Salesmanship is like any other skill. The more you do it, the more proficient you’ll get. As the saying goes, if you swing a hammer enough times, you’re bound to get good at it.

The real secret has nothing to do with any particular training program, or the product you’re selling. It’s you.

Think about it. At the end of the day, salesmanship is about relationships.
If you can’t forge a relationship with a new client, then you can’t gain trust. If you can’t gain trust, then how on earth can you expect to sell your potential client anything?

This is the reason most sales training programs produce disappointing results. They focus on one-size-fits-all solutions. They produce cookie-cutter salesmen, but the problem is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all world.

Each person is unique, and you can’t possibly recite a canned script, even personalizing it to a degree, and simultaneously let your personality shine through.

The first, best secret of selling, then, is this: Be yourself. If you’re not totally comfortable in your own skin, work on getting comfortable. Then, when you meet with a client, let your personality shine through. Get to know your client, and just as importantly, let them get to know you.

The moment you do that, you set the stage to form a real, genuine lasting relationship. At that point, it’s not so much about selling as it is about helping one another and making mutually beneficial arrangements.

If you “just” sell something, you get exactly that. One sale, and a low likelihood of repeat business. If you form a bond and a genuine relationship, you’ve got a customer for life. Which one sounds better to you?

Are you currently leveraging the awesome power of social media to grow your business?

If you’re not, then you’re as good as leaving money on the table. Few tools are more powerful or offer greater potential for growth, with the proviso that they’re used correctly, of course.

The next logical question, then, becomes how? How can you leverage that power to boost your bottom line? Fortunately, it’s easier than you might think, and below are a few simple keys to social media success.

Scattershot Doesn’t Work

The sad reality is that there are only twenty-four hours in a day, and because of that simple time constraint, you can’t be everywhere at once.
If you try to create a sizeable footprint on every social media platform out there, you won’t be doing any of them justice. Depending on your time, staff and budget, pick one, or maybe two and focus on those.

The best way to pick the “right” platform or platforms for your brand is to pay to have a customer demographics study done. After all, if most of your clients are Instagram users, then it doesn’t do you much good to put a lot of effort into Facebook. So, the first order of business should always be to find out where your customers (and, by extension, your likely customers) spend time.

Consistency is Key

Armed with the information on where to focus your efforts, the next step is to set up an account and start posting, but here, there are two points to keep in mind. Most consumers of social media want new content regularly, so if you can’t commit to at least 2-3 new posts a week, don’t bother. New posts should be made on a fairly predictable schedule.

The other element of consistency is consistency of tone and voice. Friendly and professional should be the order of the day here, but feel free to deviate from that if some other voice better personifies your brand. Remember, when you make a post, the “voice” you post in is the voice of the company.

If your brand has a refined image, and your social media posts sound like they’re coming from a brash teenager, you’ve got a disconnect, and a serious problem. Voice should always convey the spirit of the brand. Be sure that it does.

Engage!

Before the rise of social media, companies could get away with simply publishing information on websites. Social media isn’t like that. The platform is designed to allow your readers to comment, and they will.

When they do, be sure to respond. Start a conversation. Draw your readers in and make them not just customers, but fans. Do that, and you will thrive.