Categories
Branding

What Do You Stand For? What is Your Brand?

Building Your Brand

A brand is a promise of the value your prospects/customers will receive. In today’s complex and competing world your customers must not only acknowledge but support the promise of your brand if you wish to get the position or contract you want with the firm you want to work with.

To become a brand, you’ve got to become completely focused on what you do that adds value. Do you deliver your commitments on time, every time? Do you anticipate and solve problems before they become crises? Do your stakeholders save money and headaches just by having you on the team? Do you complete projects within the allotted budget?  Do you create value in your relationships with others, from the top leader to the person at the reception desk?
Every person needs to evaluate his/her brand identity against the following criteria:

Relevance to the Market

A brand must stand for something that is meaningful to your target market. Your brand encompasses the total experience of knowing you and/or doing business with you.

Consistency of Behavior and Habits

People must be able to depend on the brand to deliver the same experience every time. Because your stakeholders experience your values through you, the only way they will truly become loyal to your brand is through your dedication and consistency. In other words, walk the talk.

Relationship-Building

A brand is not a logo or an advertising strategy. The strength of your brand is in the relationship between you and your customers. The stronger the relationship, the more business you will do together, and the more likely it is that your customers will refer you to their friends and business associates.

Loyalty To The Customer Is Returned

The test of your brand is, in fact, the strength of loyalty it generates. If you have  strong relationships with your target audience, then you have a strong brand.

Reputation Is Priceless

The only way to be successful in business is by establishing a good reputation. Your reputation works by communicating the relationship you have with people who’ve done business with you, and your target market in general.

Good brands stand the test of time. To develop a brand that will last a lifetime, go beyond what you do right now. Most executives today will have multiple positions, in multiple organizations, as they continue to contribute. Will you be remembered by the positions you had or the personal brand you brought to each? What more could you do for the people in your life be they friends, family or customers?

If you establish a place of trust and relevance in peoples’ minds, you’re already in the door. The more people believe in your brand, the more it will spread throughout your life without your pushing. If your brand is clear, distinctive, and easily understood, and expresses a unique, compelling benefit that people believe in, it will bring you all the business you can handle and an abundance of positive relationships.

About the Author:

The Balanced WorkLife Company is dedicated to helping the best get better while they enjoy the journey. Our programs give you access to tools and methodologies that allow you to break through the barriers and achieve your goals while also helping you enjoy a balance between and within your job, your career and your personal life. Whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting your career, the Balanced WorkLife Company can help you achieve your ultimate potential. To learn more, visit www.balancedworklife.com and download our free report “The 16 Most Common Networking Mistakes to Avoid,” which is jam-packed with information to help you develop and build long-lasting business and social relationships.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Sales Coach Tips: Top 4 Sales Excuses That Stop You From Winning More Clients

Excuse #1: “I Don’t Have Enough Time To Prospect or Focus on Sales Related / Dollar Productive Activities.”

Solution: Create Time.

Sales professionals of all levels and business owners who achieve extraordinary levels of success have days just as hectic as everyone else, right? Yet somehow they make prospecting a part of their daily or weekly activities.
So how do they do it? They create the time. You can instantly create time if you begin to plan ahead and stay committed. This means planning your days and weeks. One of the best time-creating techniques is to schedule prospecting or selling time on your calendar and delete unimportant activities.

Schedule your most important tasks earlier in the day to ensure they get done. Ask yourself, “Where am I wasting time?” Make sure you remove those activities from your daily schedule right away. Set up a recurring event for prospecting and don’t miss it. To be successful with this, be sure to eliminate your distractions.

Excuse #2: “I Can’t Stay Committed.”

Solution: Find Compelling Reasons For Your Actions.

There is a significant difference between intentions and action. The difference is commitment.
Our commitment to our goals leads us to achievement, even during the toughest times. There is a direct relationship between motivation and commitment. If you are really committed to making a change now in your sales or business results, create a sense of urgency.

You need reasons that are so compelling and so intense you must follow through. So right now, ask yourself the following questions and come up with the three reasons why you must commit to your sales growth goals.

•    What will this cost me if I don’t make a change right now?
•    What has this cost me so far in sales results, income, and overall success?
•    If I do start prospecting effectively and on a regular basis, how will I feel about myself?
•    How will this impact my sales career, my business, my life?
•    What will I gain as a result of this new commitment?

Your answers to these questions will help you gain an immediate understanding of what you’re committed to and why!

Excuse #3: “I Don’t Feel Confident That I Will Succeed. This Is A Waste Of Time!”

Solution: Break down your sales and business goals into measurable steps.

Sometimes trying to accomplish sales goals seems so overwhelming, the immediate temptation is to give up before we even start. Ouch. That kills self-confidence. And it’s true; we can’t gain confidence until we take action. Yet, we don’t take action because we are afraid to fail. See the problem here?

Take, for example, the intimidating obstacle of facing your sales goals or business goals for the entire year. Now that’s paralyzing, isn’t it?

To gain confidence, you must break your goals down into measurable steps. For example, if want to win 12 new clients within 12 weeks, then you could set your goal for 1 new client per week. It just feels easier and more attainable this way.

You don’t have to focus on the entire goal; but instead take smaller, manageable steps. This gives you a tremendous sense of control and achievement.

By the time you are nearing the end of your first couple of weeks on your new prospecting or sales plan, despite the ups and downs in progress, you begin to feel more confident because you have experienced some results.

Suddenly, as the fear dissipates, you will discover new found confidence. And best of all, you will have achieved what you once thought was impossible—proceeding one step at a time.

Excuse #4: “I Don’t Know What To Say. I Don’t Know If I Am Delivering The Right Message or Value.”

Solution: Seek Support & Don’t Try To Do Everything On Your Own.

It is understandable to feel a little confused. You may feel overwhelmed and paralyzed. There are so many sales techniques recommended by so many “sales experts”.  So, whose advice can you trust?

Are you tired of trying to sort through all the information on the internet, sales books, business articles and tips? Well, you can stop right now and keep yourself from chasing every sales technique or theory.

So how do you find the answers?

When seeking support on these topics, make sure you are working with someone with a proven record of producing top sales results. But that is not enough. Just modeling the approaches of a highly successful sales person isn’t enough. You can start there, but you must learn your own style, strengths, and how to use them. If you can develop your own personal selling style, you will never come across as “salesey,” which is the last thing you want to do.

Start by looking towards those with great success in this field and then challenge yourself to develop your own sales style. Seek out a sales coach who helps their sales coaching clients develop their own authentic selling approach that takes into account what makes them unique, as they incorporate proven methods and techniques. This combination of proven expert methods in conjunction with a personal selling style produces dramatic results.

The bottom line: Seek someone who has achieved the “extraordinary” results you desire, learn the “winning” methods, and then integrate them into your own personal strengths to develop your own genuine selling style. By committing to turning these mistakes and excuses into powerful success strategies, you will begin to create extraordinary sales and business results! Don’t wait, make a commitment to yourself today!

About The Author:

Sales Coaching Expert, Jeremy Ulmer, has helped hundreds of sales professionals, sales leaders, and business owners just like you overcome sales challenges to increase productivity and win more clients faster.
For 100’s of unbeatable, sure-fire ways to increasing your sales results, subscribe for your free sales tips or request a free sales coaching consultation at: http://www.SalesCoachingHabits.com

Categories
Starting Up

Small Business Form – Partners or Associates?

In the late 1990’s, I started my own business. At the outset, I planned to be a principal in a firm with another gent, but circumstances at the time persuaded us to start off as separate entities and wait a while before joining forces under the same roof as owners of a company. As time went on, we both discovered that running our own operation was a great way to be – so much so that we never officially joined forces. We simply stayed working together on various projects, but remained legally separate as two different companies.

Let me go over some of the benefits of being associates rather than business partners. As first blush it may seem that there isn’t much difference. In many ways that’s true, but as always, the Devil is in the details, so let’s take a look. Here are five major points to consider before you dive into being a partner with someone instead of simply remaining associates who work together.

1. Funding – the single focal point of many problems in life is money, and it’s no different in the world of business. When you’re in a small partnership, you’ll likely be funding the operation from separate sources – one from each partner. When to fund, how much, where to hold the resources, and how best to protect them from unnecessary risk are all issues that need to get resolved with your partner. There is much opportunity for disagreement.

If you’re funding your own operation, there isn’t anyone you need to consult with or disagree with when it comes to funding. Nor is there anyone to help you share the blame for underfunding the enterprise or putting your investment at undue risk – it’s all on you. It may make your business life a bit more intimidating, knowing that you’re the only one calling the shots, but I find that’s so much easier than trying to argue with someone about how to finance a startup operation.

2. Expenses – again, another issue about money, but this time it’s about spending it wisely or foolishly. There are a multitude of issues regarding business expenses, including what kind and how much office equipment is necessary, how travel expenses will be handled, and what kind of investment will be made in business development. One partner may want a company car, the other might want cherry wood paneling in his office. The list of potential disagreements goes on and on without end. One person’s investment may be seen by the other as simply a luxury or item of prestige that doesn’t contribute to the bottom line.

If you’re on your own, you can spend like a sailor on leave, or pinch pennies until they scream. It’s much easier for you to implement your own set of values with respect to spending money if you’re the only one in charge of the purse strings. By far, the most troubling aspect of any marriage has to be household finances. It’s no different in a corporate partnership – you’re “married” to your partner and you suffer or succeed according to how well you’ve selected your partner.

3. Flexibility – it’s one of the things that we all cherish in both a service provider and a product provider. We all enjoy folks who can “work with us” and accommodate our interests. When you’re in a partnership, you need to check with your partner (s) about any number of things before proceeding. It might be associations, proposals, production commitments or travel schedules. There will always be something that reduces your flexibility to respond to customer needs. The larger the organization, the more difficult it is to be flexible and responsive.

As a “one-zee” you work for your customer directly and can be as flexible and responsive as is necessary to meet their needs and capture their loyalty. The idea of flexibility extends beyond simply serving customers. It also includes being able to team with other associates as necessary. Getting together as a team and offering customers a combination of small business resources is sometimes an exciting way to be responsive in the marketplace. Again, if you’re tied up with one or more partners, this slows down decision-making and can complicate matters, thus interfering with one of the main advantages of being in business for yourself – flexibility.

4. Changes in interest – another eventuality of being in business with others is that at some point there will be a shift in interest. One or more members of your joint venture might experience a change of heart, various personal distractions, a life-changing event, or any other shift in interest that alters the understanding or intentions on which you based your decision to go into business with another. Such perturbations can place quite a strain on the relationship that you have with your partner(s).

If you stay with a sole proprietorship model, as interests among your associates change, you can easily change the relationship that you have with your associates. Changes in relationship can include finding other individuals or business organizations to associate with. It’s not so easy with a partnership because, as you’ll recall, you’re essentially married to your partner(s) in business. Changing a relationship in such cases may involve a buy-out or lawsuit to settle the matter.

5. Dumb moves – not exactly a legal description of what your partner in business might do, but an apt description nonetheless. Whether it’s signing a contract, hiring employees, extravagant spending, inappropriate employee disciplinary action, engaging in unethical behavior, establishing precedence with your customers, or compromising the trust of your organization, sometimes your business partner can make a dumb move that places you in an embarrassing situation, or one where you can lose a valuable employee, associate or customer.

Again, as a “lone ranger” in the business world, you have a degree of insulation against dumb moves that others make because you’re at least one giant step removed from your associates. Not only can others not represent you without your consent, but it’s much easier to distance yourself or terminate a relationship with an associate that turns out to be a consistent liability rather than a dependable asset.

Not everything is rosy in the world of working on your own, but from my perspective, it’s a good place to start. Based on my experience, I was convinced to stay on my own and opt for associates instead of risking the entanglements of being a co-owner of an enterprise. My decision to stay on my own has served me well. I find one can still benefit from the advice and counsel of close associates, yet maintain sufficient distance when things go wrong – and sometimes they do, through no fault of your own.

About the Author:

Clair Schwan is a sole proprietor who started a successful  management and technical consulting business in the electric power utility industry. He has never been so happy and successful as he has been on his own, calling his own shots, and recognizing that there is really only one boss, his customer. See his advice regarding small business startup and operations at Sensible-Small-Business-Ideas where it’s clear that the only business you’ll really ever be part of is your own.

Categories
People & Relationships

Best of the Janes: Making the Most of Relationships

Business ownership comes with its own set of demands – and meeting those while also striving to build and maintain healthy relationships can prove challenging for even the most energetic female entrepreneur. While every woman business owner is unique, certain considerations apply to all business owners when it comes to playing vital roles in their relationships.

Here are some thoughts every female entrepreneur should consider when it comes to her relationships:

•    In business with clients: make sure every relationship is symbiotic – beneficial to both parties. If a client is increasingly or consistently difficult to please and continues to drain entrepreneur resources, end the relationship. If a woman business owner and a client enjoy working together, the woman business owner should keep in contact with the client, even between projects, to maintain a network of people who can help her grow her business.
•    In business with employees or team members: provide clear and constant communication. If an employee or team member isn’t playing his or her part, provide feedback. If that doesn’t remedy the situation, end the relationship. Also, female entrepreneurs should focus on providing clear communication to employees and team members, and should make opportunities available to employees or team members who want to provide feedback of their own, whether it relates to the ground-level systems they know so well, or to the business owner’s communication style. Even entrepreneurs who value freedom and flexibility must make themselves available to people they hire.
•    In business with clients: strive to maintain perspective. Some female entrepreneurs take business more personally than others do. For some, this means they take business so personally that they struggle with day-to-day decisions. For others, it means they don’t take it personally at all, and can come across as brusque or abrasive with team members or clients. Keeping things in perspective and finding a balance between taking business situations totally personally or not taking them personally at all will provide women business owners with more effective work-life balance and with better communication.
•    At home with spouse or romantic partner: manage time well to ensure adequate time and attention on personal relationships. Every successful entrepreneur is passionate about her business, and must demonstrate the same level of passion about her family relationships so the people she loves don’t feel neglected. Women business owners must remember to ask their loved ones about their passions, and to avoid monopolizing home conversations with talk about the business.
•    At home with self: nurture the most important relationship – that with self. Many women business owners work so hard to provide for their employees, their families and their companies that they forget to provide for themselves. It is crucial in finding a satisfactory work life balance to set aside “self” time – and to stick to it. Find something relaxing – whether it’s a long walk, a massage, a facial, or a coffee break – and then schedule time regularly into the calendar to spend some time doing it.
•    At home with children and family: consider the effect business plans may have on home life. While some business owners report high levels of satisfaction with the work-life balance they strike, it is important to consider how changes in the business will affect family life. Depending on circumstances, for example, it may benefit a business owner and her family if she spends as much time with the kids as possible when they’re out of school for the summer, and plans a new product launch or business growth spurt to occur during the fall, when they are back in school.

At some point in the life of every business and every personal or family relationship, the two are bound to seem incompatible. However, by following the advice outlined in this article, female entrepreneurs can make strides towards managing this inherent conflict, so that their business and their relationships can coexist peacefully.

About the Author:

Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com

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Newsletter

BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 103

BIZNESS! Newsletter


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Be a Job Prize Hunter
Jobprize allows job seekers to offer a “prize” to in-the-know employees to refer them to and help them land a job. Anyone can go to http://www.JobPrize.com and post a profile about his or her background. What makes this different from other job search sites? Job seekers pay a prize to employees in companies with openings….

Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 103 >>>


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