Success – Page 2 – A-Head for Success

A-Z of Business: X- X-Ray Vision – Know your Business Inside Out

November 13, 2013

Your business results don’t reflect the effort you put in. Sound familiar?

If so, you are not alone. Indeed, some of my clients have been working so hard that they are nearing burnout. This is often because they are focusing on the wrong thing, which they believe to be the right thing. This is why having a forensic view of your company – x-ray vision – helps you to focus on those factors which make the biggest difference to your success. Working smart, not working hard is the difference which makes the difference. Productivity, not activity.

For example, if you are spending a lot of time bringing in new business but haemorrhaging customers out the back door, your efforts will be as effective as attempting to fix a burst pipe with a sticking plaster.

Or perhaps you are spending your time bringing in new business that you don’t have the infrastructure to support? Like building a house without it’s foundations.

Maybe your customer service is poor and you are busy sending out feedback forms when really the problem is that your hiring processes and training do not enforce your company value of customer satisfaction?

Or is your business booming but your customer’s aren’t paying their invoices? This is where success leads to ruin.

So, x-ray vision on the essentials helps you work strategically – making the right decisions about how you spend your time and your money and what will be the best strategy to take your business forward. The first step is to get yourself some key performance indicators. These help you to measure your performance against target on areas you consider to be important, for example:

Turnover
Profit
Product revenues
Sales growth
Cost of sales
Costs
Performance against budget
Sales conversion ratio
New sales by marketing method
ROI (see individual blog about this)
Revenue by customer
Employee satisfaction
Employee performance
Revenue by employee
Customer satisfaction
Customer complaints
Customer complaints resolved
There are also various KPIs for:
- Social media
- Site engine optimisation
- Call centre performance

Lies and statistics

A lot of clients view a nice big turnover as proof of their success and they just work very hard at increasing that number. However, a forensic examination of the statistics will let them know whether there is also a healthy profit because if the ratio of profit to turnover is low, you are working hard for little reward. It will help you look at what is creating the biggest profit and whether you need to make a loss on something to bring in profit on something else. This is both an art and a science. Also, if you are producing lots of nice big invoices but not getting paid because your credit control is not effective, that turnover is meaningless.

Here are my 5 steps to help you take control of your business with x-ray vision:

Consider what KPIs you want in your business (the above are just a few examples)
Regularly review performance against these
Look at the relationship between them
Decide what is causing the positive results and do more of those
Determine what is causing negative results and take remedial action. Make sure there will not be negative consequences elsewhere.

Remember that an x-ray shows you what is wrong structurally, it is up to you to find out the cause and to take appropriate action.

If you need help with any of this – it is hard doing it for yourself – do give me a call on 0845 130 0854. I look forward to hearing from you!

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Business, Customer Service, Finance, Productivity, Profit, Sales, Success

Customer service, Employees, KPIs, Profit, Results, Revenue, Sales, Success

A-Z of Business: S – Selling: Your 6 Steps to Success

June 24, 2013

Sales Sales are the lifeblood of any business and the ability to sell is an art-form. That’s why sales people get paid so well.

It’s also inextricably linked to reputation. So, whatever commitments you make in the sales process, it’s important to be sure that you can meet them. It can be tempting, especially if you are chasing targets, to make a sale at any cost. Promising impossible delivery terms, or unworkable modifications, just to get them to sign the order, can be an expensive mistake.

Conversely, being honest with a prospect if you feel your product isn’t right for them, increases your credibility, your reputation and the potential for future sales and ongoing referrals. Your prospect understands that you have their best interests at heart so they will trust you should their needs change in the future.

Selling requires a variety of skills, from the ability to build rapport, to excellent listening and communication skills. The ability to handle objections is possibly the most difficult component and was the subject of a previous article (view). It requires the ability to influence effectively (view) and to negotiate well (view).

Following is a simple sales process. To illustrate it in action, let’s suppose you are selling a printer:

Build rapport
Background information
- How long have you had your existing printer? What features are you looking for? What kind of volume do you need it to produce?
What problem are you trying to solve?
- “We’d like to save money on ink; We’d like to improve reliability and print quality and we’d like to increase the number of functions – ie print on A3, collate reports and staple”
What effect is the problem having on you? This helps the prospect to identify with the pain of the problem.
- “The current printer is slow, unreliable and often breaks down – last time it meant that the reports weren’t ready for the board meeting.”
Suggest a positive outcome to their problem. This will move them from the pain of the problem to the pleasure of the solution, making them more open to saying “yes”.
- “Our model XYZ123 will produce high quality print, 50% faster than your current printer at a 20% saving on your current cartridges. Not only that, it will collate and staple your reports for you.”
Ask for the sale – the most important part!
- There are various closing techniques, the simplest of which are:
  - Direct – “This seems to address all your needs whilst making savings for you. Would you like to buy this model?”
  - Assumptive – “When would you like it delivered?”

It is easy to blame the product or the price for lack of sales, but often the issue is more about not having aligned your solution to the client’s needs. Remember that selling is an art-form. Do read the objection-handling and negotiating articles mentioned above for more information. Also, why not call for some 1:1 coaching so that you can have a personalised input on how to improve your sales success? Call me on 0845 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Customer, Influencing, Negotiation, Objection handling, Products, Sales, Success, Trading

Influencing skills, Negotiation, Objection handling, Product, Sales, Strengths, Success, Tricia Woolfrey

A-Z of Business: EQ – The Difference Which Makes the Difference

May 13, 2013

In this A-Z of Business series, we have reached the letter Q. Now, I could have talked about quotas, quoting or questions if I was being a purist. But, if I look at the balance of what’s been written and what’s missing, I think that EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is far more important. Anything which omits this key area of business success is lacking. So I decided to break my own rule and hope that’s OK with you?

In case you haven’t come across this before you may be wondering why it’s called EQ when it refers to Emotional Intelligence (EI)? The Q refers to “quotient” which is the amount of a specific quality or characteristic, in this case, emotional intelligence. But, what does it mean? It is the capacity for self-insight, for understanding and managing your emotions and having empathy for others’. In this way you can better manage your relationships and your stress levels.

It is such an important skill that it is thought to be more important than IQ in helping to get you promoted, in creating sales and in building collaborative effort. Research suggests that it accounts for around 90% of managerial success as opposed to IQ which only accounts for 20%. Not that IQ is not important. Of course, it is. But you need both. The ability to put your knowledge, your expertise, your skills into effect in the most constructive way possible is said to be the difference which creates the successful business person whether you work for yourself of for an organisation.

So, ask yourself:

How well do you respond to setbacks?
How well do you understand people’s different motivations and behaviours?
Do you have a balanced view of your own strengths and weaknesses?
To what extent are you able to control your responses in situations which challenge you?
Are you good at building collaborative relationships?
Could you be described as someone who is level-headed, positive and flexible?
Do you inspire trust?
Do you manage conflict well (rather than avoid it)?
Are you self-motivated?
How good are you at bouncing back when things go wrong?

You can learn more HERE on our website.

Emotional intelligence is one of those concepts where you need a lot of it to know you have it. So if your EQ isn’t as high as you think it is, it will almost certainly be inhibiting your progress. To be sure what your level of EQ is, why not book an assessment? It’s well worth it and can put you on track for success like nothing else. Call me on 0845 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Business, Emotional Intelligence, Performance, Success

Business, Coaching, Customer service, Emotional intelligence, Employees, Performance, Stakeholders, Success, Tricia Woolfrey

A-Z of Business: O – Objection Handling – The Ten Essentials

April 2, 2013

Objections are an inevitable part of any selling process – whether you are selling products, services or an idea. It is the part of the sale which leaves all but the very best sales people, influencers and negotiators trembling behind a façade of the “this-doesn’t-bother-me-at-all” faux-smile. It’s what keeps most would-be sales people hiding under a duvet of busy-ness so they never get to make the call which could result in the rejection they fear so much. And this is because they personalise the “rejection”. They make it about themselves rather than a legitimate (or smoke-screen) concern.

Sales is really a numbers game and you need to get through so many rejections before you can make one sale. Objections are often a signal for more information and here are a few ideas to help you through with greater ease:

First and foremost, don’t take it personally. You can no more be an effective salesperson without objections as you could be an effective car without wheels. Think of objections, instead, as “feedback”.
The second “secret” is to build emotional resilience. That’s a big subject to which I devote a whole chapter in my book “21 Ways and 21 Days to the Life You Want”. However, one quick way of building resilience is to view every experience as a learning opportunity.
Prepare by listing all the objections you think you may receive – here are some common ones:
- Price
- Delivery terms
- They already have a current supplier
Practice active listening so that you really understand what they are saying, not what you want to hear or what fits into your well-prepared script.
The easiest objection handling technique (and there are many) is the shopping list technique. It flushes out any possible objections up front. To do this, you need to elicit all their wants in advance and write them down. When they have finished, ask “Anything else?” until you are sure you have everything. Then say “So, if we meet all these needs, you will want to go ahead?” This, of course, is assuming that you’re actually speaking to the decision maker.
Think of your offering in terms of features and benefits. Let’s say that you are selling a gardening magazine. The feature may be that it is full of interesting articles by some of the country’s top experts. The benefit might include some of the following: that it will provide easy-to-follow answers to all their gardening problems right when they need it so that they can enjoy a beautiful garden all-year round; they will spend less money on plants which were never suitable for their garden in the first place; they will be able to enjoy a hobby rather than be frustrated by the lack of progress; they will learn new skills, and create a space where they can relax/have fun with their kids/entertain friends/grow organic vegetables to make healthy meals for their families; they will have more time to enjoy being in their garden rather than working on their garden, etc. The idea is to find out what they want and sell to those rather than have a blanket list.
Avoid giving too many benefits because you dilute the message – just focus on their specific wants and needs.
Move them through negative states into the positive state you want them to experience, ie. from cynicism to curiosity to openness and finally to enthusiasm. I cover this in my ‘Influencing for Better Business’ course.
Once you have taken them through each of their shopping list items, ask if there is anything else they need. Then, for any ongoing objections ask “If I could deal with this, would you be ready to go ahead?”. Then come up with a solution to the problem that they are happy with.
When all objections are handled, ask for the sale. You will be surprised how many people miss off this important element.

I couldn’t finish this article without my bonus tip – limit your sales calls and sandwich them in between enjoyable activities that give you a sense of achievement. This helps you to stay resourceful and to maintain your energy levels and resilience.

If you would like to learn more about how you can handle objections, why not book for a coaching session, or onto my next ‘Influencing for Better Business’ course? Investing in yourself in this way can really yield exceptional results. Call 0845 130 0854 for more information on how to accelerate your success.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Business, Customer, Influencing, Negotiation, Objection handling, Problem Solving, Sales

Achievement, Customer, Customer satisfaction, Influencing, Negotiation, Objection handling, Problem solving, Sales, Success

A-Z of Business: M – Marketing for Success

February 19, 2013

Marketing is the activity which creates awareness of your products or services and brings new business in. However, it does require you to spend time on your business rather than in it. This means, creating a cohesive and sustained marketing strategy to create awareness and desire for your services or products. A mistake a lot of people make is to try something once and, if it doesn’t yield the desired result, drop it and move onto something else. That’s understandable but means that you are never leveraging off that effort.

Imagine that you decide on an advert. You spend a fair amount of money, but nada. Not one single enquiry. Is advertising wrong for you? Not necessarily. There are lots of factors which could affect its success: Was it the right publication? Is your branding attractive and in keeping with your product or service? Was the advert professionally designed? Is your USP clear? Is the wording enticing? Does it have a call to action? Does it clearly state how they can contact you? Is it on the right page? Does it lend itself better to radio or TV? Is the timing right for you? With advertising, one insertion is rarely sufficient. It needs to be part of a campaign, but before committing to that, you need to make sure you have everything right.

Advertising is just one of many different marketing methods from seminars to networking, newsletters to referrals, direct mail to PR, internet to telemarketing, direct selling to alliances. Social media is extremely popular but it is so easy to waste a lot of time if you don’t do it right. How do you know which will be right for you? How do you know where to invest your hard earned cash? Marketing is an art, not a science, and it very much depends on your product, your competition and your available budget.

There are certain areas that you shouldn’t scrimp and save. For example, I have seen many businesses who describe themselves as selling a quality product but whose business card is cheap, flimsy and ill-designed. Yet others who have hired telemarketing people who do not understand their product at all, and who follow a script which does not fit the conversation. And yet more who spend a lot of money on a beautiful website, only to have no-one see it because it hasn’t been optimised.

Points to consider are why someone should buy from you? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competition? Where can you differentiate? Who is your ideal customer? What problems are you solving? Remember that people don’t want a washing machine – they want clean clothes. Speaking directly to your customer and their needs makes all the difference – you want to inspire them to buy and have a brand which is suitable for your target market.

Once you have your campaign in place, it is important to monitor all your enquiries to see which effort is yielding the best results for you. This lets you know what works and why, what doesn’t and why, so that you can refine, refine, refine.

Of course, once you have attracted a customer into your business, it’s essential to keep them happy. Happy customers bring more prospects to you.

If you would like help in navigating this minefield, do call me on 0845 130 0854. I would love to help you make a success of your business. After all, my success is your success!

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Branding, Image, Marketing, Success

Marketing, Success, Tricia Woolfrey

A-Z of Business: L – Leadership-v-Management: Are You a Manager or a Leader?

January 29, 2013

How do you know if you are a manager or a leader?

There are few job titles with the word “leader” in them. Manager or Director (depending on your level of seniority) seem to be the titles of choice – Customer Services Manager, Finance Director, Marketing Manager, Human Resources Director, etc. Yet, the title is not an indication. Being a manager is as important as leadership. However, without leadership, you are missing a crucial element in business success – winning people’s hearts and minds.

Management can be thought of as being the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your role, with duties such as:

Planning
Allocating resources
Organising and co-ordinating
Controlling and directing
Measuring and evaluating
Solving problems
Short term thinking for managers, medium-term thinking for directors
Managing systems and procedures
Maintaining
Concerned with the “when” and “how”

All of these are absolutely essential and create a framework, structure and systems to achieve results which are monitored and course-corrected on a regular basis.

A leader, by contrast will be more of a visionary and will motivate and inspire people to follow. Their focus will be on the long-term and they will be concerned with:

Establishing a vision
Inspiring co-operation and trust
Developing ideas and people
Concerned with the “what” and “why”

Creating a vision will usually require change and a good leader will inspire the team to be motivated for that change which might otherwise be met with resistance. A leader paints a picture that people want to be part of and want to help make happen.

Managers deal with “shoulds” (the realms of necessity) while leaders deal with “coulds” (the realms of possibility).

Of course, leadership and management are not mutually exclusive. There is a lot of overlap between the two. A good leader will need good management qualities. A good manager will require good leadership qualities. If you tend to be a good leader but are not good at the planning, implementation and problem solving, it’s essential to have a very good, reliable and loyal team to do this for you. If you are a good manager without the leadership qualities, you will need a good leader managing you to help you pass on the vision to your team. Both skills can be learned and, with both skills, you will be a rounded professional contributing fully to the success of your team and your business.

And, to close, off, the wonderful Stephen Covey said “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” You have to have your vision right, otherwise you are managing the wrong things.

If you would like to have greater insight into your leadership and management skills, book a psychometric profile session. This helps overcome blind spots and highlights development opportunities for you. Call 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Business Coach, Decision Making, Employees, Leadership, Management

Business, Business coach, Decision making, Delegation, Image, Influencing, leadership, Management, Motivation, Strengths, Success, Tricia Woolfrey

A-Z of Business: K – Knowledge – Your Competitive Edge?

January 17, 2013

It is estimated that 15% of success is from your technical skills whereas 85% is through gaining trust and respect. So, what has knowledge to do with this? Plenty, as it happens. Knowledge covers the whole spectrum. Good technical skills are, of course, important. But not if the knowledge is out of date. Technology is changing all the time – as are trends – and it is essential to keep abreast of what’s going on in your market place and in your profession.

Solicitors and doctors go through years of training in their profession before they are able to practice. Yet, how much training have you had to run your own department, or your own business? How much knowledge have you acquired to help you be successful? Whether you are running a department or a business of your own, the knowledge you need to be effective is extremely broad and most people simply muddle through. In the meantime, what happens to the trust and respect essential to 85% of your success?

The following table helps you to understand some of the fundamentals for trust and respect and the kind of knowledge you need for them:

TRUST AND RESPECT	KNOW-HOW
Good people and rapport skills	Influencing and leadership
Doing what you say you will do	Planning and organising
Doing an excellent job	Technical and delegation
Managing complaints effectively	Problem solving and conflict management
Meeting your obligations	Business acumen and resource management
Emotional intelligence	Understanding of people and yourself and how to manage yourself and your relationships in times of stress

Business knowledge – such as sales, marketing, finance, operations – is important whether you run your own business or manage a department as you need to see how everything fits together. These will help you to exploit strengths, minimise weaknesses, seize opportunities and handle threats from a point of strength.

So, how can you increase your knowledge? Through coaching, training, reflective learning and study. Often, you don’t know what you don’t know (in the case of business, ignorance is not bliss) and it is helpful to have someone there who can help you see your blind-spot. Having your own coach and mentor is an excellent step to take to help you stay on top of your game. For more information call 0845 130 0854 for a no obligation chat.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

A-Z of Business: J – Judgement: The Key to Effective Decision Making

December 19, 2012

Judgement is your ability to assess a situation and to draw sound conclusions. This is a key factor in your decision making process. How do you judge whether something is right for your business or not? And how do other people judge you and your business? When you understand this, it can really help you:

a) make decisions which serve your business well
b) help you to help other people make judgements in your favour

There are various ways in which we may be convinced of something-

Number of examples – ie the third time you see something, you are sure it’s right
Automatically – you don’t take too much convincing, you just automatically trust that something is right
Period of time – you need to think about something for a while before deciding, even if it is an obvious solution
A trusted source – if you hear it from someone you trust, or know they are doing the same thing, that’s enough to convince you
Logic – you need to evaluate the facts before deciding if something is right for you
Emotion – you tend to trust your gut
Impact on the bottom line – you will not be convinced of anything unless you see how it will affect the bottom line
Tried and tested – you need to see something working somewhere else before you think about it for yourself
Cynics – you are never truly convinced of anything

None are right or wrong in themselves. However, it’s possible to rely too much on a particular method which could leave you vulnerable. For example, going on gut instinct without checking the effect something has on your bottom line could affect the profitability of your business; relying on a period of time may mean that an opportunity is lost; being automatically convinced can be dangerous as there is no evaluation of the possible impact something may have; cynics can fail to take opportunities because they always find fault; depending on tried and tested methods can mean you are behind the curve in terms of your competition; relying on logic alone can mean that you are ignoring the not inconsiderable power of your intuition; depending on a trusted source requires that the trusted source be right 100% of the time or that their circumstances are the same as yours.

Ask yourself, what other factors do you need to consider when you are formulating your decisions? Do re-read the decision making part of this series.

Finally, what to do with this information when considering your customers and prospects? You will be well-advised to consider an example of all the above criteria in relation to your products and factor in where appropriate. For example, Jack has a strong gut instinct but likes to back it up with number of examples, so you might want to either find three ways of proving your product, or expect to make your case over three appointments, and follow that up with “What does your gut tell you about the suitability of our product for your business?”

Or, Sally may make her decision solely on the bottom line. So you may want to take the approach of showing the cost savings your product will give her, or the revenue potential, or perhaps some other way of impacting the bottom line.

If you aren’t sure about what someone else’s convincer strategy is, ask them how they decided to buy their latest car, computer system or even holiday. This should give you a lot of clues.

Even the most successful business people have made bad judgements in their time. However, you can minimise yours by considering all of your options to make a more informed decision.

If you would like to discuss you own business decision making strategy, or change the way others judge your business, please contact us on 0845 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Business Coach, Decision Making, Performance, Problem Solving, Success

Business, Decision making, Finance, Performance, Problem solving, Success, Tricia Woolfrey

A-Z of Business: I – Influencing Skills

November 28, 2012

The ability to positively influence others with integrity is a key skill in business. It affects your ability to have people buy into you, your business, your product and your ideas. It impacts your leadership style and your ability to build constructive relationships. It can also be incredibly stressful if you are unable to influence people constructively, impacting your productivity, your sales and even your profitability.

Influence is about your ability to have a positive effect on someone. It differs from manipulation in that it is undertaken with integrity and regard to the interest of the other party. It’s about having people buy in to your ideas and perspectives, so that they say ‘yes’ to you more.

The talent for influence requires flexibility in style, clarity of outcome, the ability to understand a situation from several perspectives, and creating and maintaining a resourceful state, particularly during times of conflict, or when the stakes are high.

It is not about imposing but inspiring someone to take a particular action, while maintaining strong rapport and building positive relationships.

There are numerous language patterns which enhance your capacity to increase your powers of influence which are too numerous to go into in this short article but which I teach to many of my clients and which I include on my Influencing Skills training course. The issue, though, is not what the skills are, but the effect that they can have on your success. They can help you deal with objections and concerns so that you are able to transform potentially negative situations elegantly. It’s the YES factor!

Whether your intention is to create change, elicit support or diffuse potentially contentious situations, influencing skills can be a real boon to you in your business.

For further details, please contact Tricia Woolfrey on 0345 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

A-Z of Business: H – Health – How Can Your Business Be Healthy If You’re Not?

November 7, 2012

To succeed in business you need to be firing on all cylinders. In fact, you could say that the health of your business is a reflection of your own health. If you are tired all the time, or run down with frequent bouts of colds and flu, suffer frequent headaches or if you are at the mercy of IBS, can you really be functioning at your best?

Health is more than just an absence of symptoms. When you are healthy in every sense of the word (physically and emotionally), you will have more stamina and energy to deal with the stressors of business life; mentally you will have clarity of thought and direction, the ability to solve problems quickly and your memory will be more reliable; you will feel more motivated and less irritable; health will also mean that your immune system is strong to safeguard you from colds and flu as well as more serious illnesses.

If you’re feeling tired-all-the-time, or low motivation, it could well be as a result of your body needing to be stronger and healthier.

Your health can be affected by many factors including:

Food choices
Depleted nutrition in foods
Cellular health
Alcohol
Sugar
Cigarettes
Stress
Negative emotions
Environment
Lack of exercise

Taking care of yourself is taking care of business. We take great care of our cars: fill them with petrol, make sure there is enough oil and water, take them for a regular MOT, but are you doing this for yourself? For a health MOT, call 0845 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Health, Performance, Success, Wellness

Business, Coaching, Employees, Health, Illness, Motivation, Nutrition, Performance, Problem solving, Stamina, Strengths, Success, Targets, Tricia Woolfrey, Wellness