Attention Minneapolis Business Owners: Are You Ready To Succeed In Business Without Fighting the Competition?

 

Recently I saw a CEO of a national coffee chain claim that his company’s market position was all about the beans – in other words, all about the taste of the coffee.  Unfortunately for him, his competition has also staked out that territory.  Even worse, a quick trip to any coffee shop reveals that customers are there for the environment and experience, not the coffee.  From business movers and shakers to teens who are looking for a place to hang out, coffee is just rental fee for the use of the space. 

 

Think about it – when was the last time you saw someone in a coffee shop actually savoring the taste of their coffee?  Perhaps you’ve noticed as I have that no-one curls up to their coffee cup.

 

So, why is this important?  Because great tasting coffee is not a differentiator.

 

This CEO is about to spend a LOT of money trying to buy his way into the minds of people who’ve already made a decision.  And he’s going to try to do it based on parameters that his potential customers already expect.  By the way, I’ve tried his coffee and he’s right, they do have good coffee – just like everyone else, including McDonalds.

 

I asked myself why do I go to a coffee shop?  It’s because I’m meeting someone there.  So the coffee is backdrop.  While I don’t want to meet someone where the coffee is tastes bad, I’m never there because of their coffee.  It seems some are there to meet others, like me.  Others are there for a retreat – reading a book or newspaper, or doing work on their computer, but I noticed no one was enjoying the fact that their coffee was excellent.

 

So I started to wonder what would make this a different, better experience for me?  What would make me drive out of my way to meet people at a particular shop?  Well, if I’m there to get work done, what about a mini office supply store?  Or if I’m there to ‘retreat’ then stock the latest books (audio and paperback)?  Or what if they had computer support help?  A Geek onsite to fix computers and sell you software, downloaded on your computer right there.  That’s what I’d like.  A paring of Kinko’s and coffee.  Ah, but see, this is not about the coffee is it? 

 

I can hear this CEO now, ‘That’s straying away from our core competency and our brand identity’.  You know what, it is.  It’s ‘straying toward’ your customers and away from a brand that says ‘me too’.  Maybe Kinko’s should think about adding coffee to their stores.  That should do wonders for increasing their store traffic.

 

So how about you?  What business are you in?  Is your brand identity saying ‘me to’ or does it say ‘I know why you’re here, I know what you want, and we’re the only ones who give it to you’?

 

You should not be expected to spend a lot in advertising and marketing promotions to get this type of compelling market position.  This is the real power creating a unique brand identity.  And you don’t have to fight anyone to get the market share you deserve. 

 

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company.  If you would like to learn more about him or to contact him for a private consultation, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill.

Business Coaching Questions for New Business Owners From a Minnesota Business Coach

Are you ready to be a MN entrepreneur? Are you ready for some business coaching?

 

If you’re considering going into business for yourself, perhaps you’ve seen these questionnaires in various forms.  There is typically a list of several questions about temperament, are you a self starter, do you have an idea of your ideal customers, do you have a marketing plan… etc.  I can give you a self test of 4 simple questions that will not only tell you if you should start a business, but exactly how big the potential is.  Will you only have a job that requires you to work like crazy or will you have a worldwide global mega-corporation?  Would you like to know that before you even start?

 

Business success questions

I have found there are 4 basic stumbling blocks to business success.  I use these as an acid test of any business owner I meet.  It tells me if they’re ready and able to progress through each level.  As you review these, imagine your business being stopped at whatever level you’re not willing to accept, or more correctly, whatever you’re not willing to let go of.

 

Level 3 Do you want to share your wealth with others?

Level 2 Do you love to lead people?

Level 1 Do you know how to read a financial statement?

Level 0 Are you willing to change?

 

 

Level 0 Are you willing to change you?

Entrepreneurs and business owners are challenged at each of the levels as they grow their business.  The ‘challenge behind the challenge’ is they may not want to change.  They want to hold on to their beliefs and be ‘right’ rather than be successful.  If this describes you, you’re kidding yourself.

If you feel the world needs to change instead of you, very few people will give you advice and those who do won’t like your response. They will quickly stop helping you.  I’m always eager to work with business owners who can readily accept that they need to continuously change.  They grow much more quickly.

This level is a foundation level and it applies to each of the other levels.

For example, you may be willing to learn to read a financial statement but unwilling to learn how to lead others.  You’ll be stopped at Level 2, never able to progress beyond it.

 

Level 1 Do you know how to read a financial statement?

If not, are you willing to learn to read a financial statement?  If you don’t know how to read a financial statement and don’t want to learn (Level 0) because you hate numbers, stop being a business owner.  Read that again.  Stop being a business owner.  You’re creating too much grief for yourself.    People stuck at this level wind up out of business because they never get control of their money.  Once you learn to love reading the numbers you’ll gain an amazing amount of clarity on the fundamentals of your business.  Like how much you should be charging and how much you’re really worth.

 

Level 2 Do you love to lead people or are they a problem?

Are you willing to learn how to love and lead people who don’t live up to your expectations?  When people disappoint you, are you grateful and does it EXCITE you?  Why do I say that? Because it means you get a chance to learn a lesson and change.  I remember when I had some big idea working at a large corporation and I pitched it, I was disappointed because nothing happened.  Almost nobody was excited.  I had to learn how to be a better champion of ideas (check out Seth Godin’s book, “Free Prize Inside” for help on being a better champion). I got the chance to learn.  If people frustrate you and you don’t want to learn how to lead, your company will never grow beyond you.  People stuck at this level wind up working 60 hours a week and never get a chance to have free time.

 

 

Level 3 Do you want to share your wealth with others?

Would you mind sharing your wealth with others?  What if you make 10 million dollars, are you willing to share nine million with others?  Yes, you worked hard to achieve it, yes you earned it fair and square as they say.  Are you able and willing to share nine million of it with others? 

 

If not, then this person doesn’t understand the value of having investors.  They take all the risk by investing in you… by betting on you and your team.  If you’re not able to share in the increase then it’s not going to start with you.  At best, this person will only be able to create money based on what they earn, never wealth. 

 

While people at this level may dream of creating something bigger, they really don’t want to share it with others.  I have heard this from many people “I don’t want investors because they take ownership”.   The ONLY reason an investor wants control is they don’t believe the owner has the skills and experience to make it happen.  If the owner did, investors would be quite happy to make a decent, semi-safe return on their investment and you’d have a legacy.

Owners stuck at this level will never be able to sell their business for what it’s worth (or could be worth).  Once they become incapacitated, the business stops working and the money and value disappears. 

 

So, rate yourself… can you agree 100 percent with these statements:

• I am 100 percent committed to changing myself everyday (agree or disagree)
• I love reading financial statements, numbers speak to me (agree or disagree)
• I get excited when people disappoint me, it means I’m about to learn something (agree or disagree)
• I’d be happy if an investor took ownership of my company, it means that I was able to create something that grew beyond what I am able to achieve alone.  (agree or disagree)

Business owners need to accept change 

If you can’t agree to those statements, re-consider if you should be starting a business.  You’re going to either go out of business, work long hours or put in a lifetime of effort only to see it dry up and blow away once you are forced to stop working.

 

Of course, if you can say yes to each of these life tests when they come, you’re much better positioned to take advantage of success when it comes.

 

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company, ActionCOACH.  If you would like to learn more about him, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill.

Employee Leadership Training Designed to Create Experienced Employees

Where have all the leaders gone? Employee leaders get results!

They haven’t been given permission to become leaders yet.

Lee Iacocca’s book about where have all the great leaders gone made me remember my time in corporate as I created mentoring systems – systems designed to create talented, experienced employees. One of the things I realized is people need permission in the United States. It’s in our culture. We’re taught in school to follow rules, wait for permission, etc. Then that carries out into our workplaces. Employees wait and seek to be given direction.

Natural leaders of this generation

The current generation of leaders never gave permission to anyone to be a leader. When I speak with them, they say ‘power is taken, not given’. That’s one way to look at it. That will allow you to spot those with ‘raw talent’ and ‘passion’ and ‘drive’ (insert your own trite phrase here) that make up a natural leader. However, if you want to grow a company (or a nation) of leaders, they must come from employees. We have an abundance of those. If you want employees to do anything you must either give them an incentive or give them permission.

Creating leaders in your company

Try this experiment. Find people who ask ‘why can’t it be better’, and then give them permission to be a leader. Say it just like that “I give you permission to lead”. Add all the other encouragements you want “that’s a great idea, I think you’re onto something here, etc’ and be genuine of course. But make the core message, “I give you permission to lead”.

No? ok then, I give you permission to be a creator of leaders. You have my permission to lead others. Next time, you won’t need my permission and neither will your former employees need permission. They’ll all be leaders.

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company, ActionCOACH.  If you would like to learn more about him, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill. If you would like him to help you train your employees to become leaders, give him a call at (612) 819-1803

Business Rules and How to Change Them Effectively

Rules of the game

Once you learn the ‘rules of the game’ you can change them and get a different, better result.  For example, when I was an enlisted soldier in the United States Army, I learned they had a lot of rules.  A fact my Drill Sergeant seemed all to eager to impress upon me (thank you Drill Sgt. Fitch).  As time progressed, I became aware that if I had to follow the rules, well so did everyone else.  Now I was not a rule breaker, or even a rule bender, but I was able to learn how to use the rules to my advantage. 

 

Cover Your Assets 

I learned a rule called CYA (cover your ‘assets’).  I saw it applied by a fellow soldier in a creative and unique way.  He created a ‘little black book’ that anytime he saw other soldiers performing behaviors that could be considered ‘against the rules’ he recorded what behaviors he observed, the dates and times.  Why?  He had been getting harassment from his superiors about his behaviors.  They had singled him out – if for personal vindictiveness or to make an example of him, I don’t know. 

 

The ‘rule’ that applies here is you can’t talk back to your superiors.  In order to have good discipline in the Army, you have to have this rule.  If they say ‘charge’ you can’t have soldiers saying ‘no’ or ‘I don’t want to’.  So, each time a superior came to this soldier and chastised him for his behavior, he would politely apologize, agree and pull out his little book and say something to the effect that they were right, and they’d have to go after these other people also, because on this date and time they were observed breaking this exact ‘rule’.  As you can imagine, they soon backed off and left him alone.  He had effectively used the rules to his advantage.

 

 Company rules can be used to your advantage

Once I left the Army, I learned companies had rules too.  Most were ‘unwritten’ and were embedded in the culture.  Probably because I worked in many different companies, I saw that some of the rules are different and the rules can be changed.  This was indelibly written into my brain when I was at a large electronics retailer.  We were continually being asked to take on more computer support work, so I developed a simple and effective transition process to make sure instructions were clearly documented, expectations were agreed upon and the necessary passwords and permissions were granted. 

 

I was asked if I wanted to do that role permanently.  I declined.  They found someone else to do it.  I trained this person and they followed the rules and procedures I wrote.  Years later, it became necessary to update the process.  This person actively resisted any changes to the process because they believed in following the rules.  My big “ah ha” moment was that these were the ‘rules’ I had written, not some mindless corporation or otherwise brainless boss.  I had done it on almost a whim, without more than a second thought, because I knew I could change the procedures (or rules) as needed.  I had not counted on someone else investing so much of their work identity into these rules.

 

This person was the ‘transition manager’, in effect they were telling themselves and others they WERE the rules.  They had become the rules.  My attempt to change the rules was impacting their very work identity.  Here’s the big secret.  I made the rules, which means I also made this person’s identity.  This made me wonder what else (and who else) I could create in this manner. 

 

Knowing the rules and understanding how to change them

So how does this apply?  Well, look around.  Everything is affected by and subject to the ‘rules of the game’.  Once you know the ‘rules of the game” you can understand how to change them to your advantage.  Why? Because the biggest rule of the game is there are no rules.  The only rules are those we make.

If you’d like to learn more about making your own rules, check out my ebook “Applying Transformation Principles”.  And by all means I welcome your feedback.

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company, ActionCOACH.  If you would like to learn more about him, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill.

Crisis Equals Danger Plus Opportunity (C=D+O)

I’ve been told the Chinese ideogram (or word, if you prefer) for crisis is made up of the symbols Danger and Opportunity.  This is similar to the old saying “there’s a silver lining in every cloud’.

This didn’t really ‘click’ with me until I realized this is an algebra equation.  Here’s what I mean: if Crisis = Danger + Opportunity…

 

…Then wouldn’t Danger = Crisis – Opportunity?

In other words, if there was no opportunity in a crisis, that would be dangerous, right?

 

Then what is Opportunity? A crisis without danger. (Opportunity = Crisis – Danger).

Think of that… how many times have you heard this story… something in the news about some major crisis and then someone was ‘smart enough’ to profit from the situation?  They were able to look at the situation objectively and determine a way to minimize the risk to themselves and for others.

 

Why wasn’t that you?  Probably because you weren’t alert to look for the way to minimize (or eliminate) the danger to create an opportunity.

 

I first realized the power of this formula when I read a book about George Soros, the international financier.  One of the themes throughout his book was his approach to situations.  He always looked for the opportunity by minimizing the danger.  For example, he watched as international banks loaned money to many countries in South America.  The ‘fatal flaw’ he saw was these banks were crediting the cash from other banks in those countries’ ‘ability to pay’ calculations, and loaning more money.  This was a danger for the banks.  How did he find the opportunity?  By betting against the stock values of those banks by using a ‘put’ stock option strategy.  Imagine if someone was obligated to pay you for a stock that went down in value.  This is a stock market instrument that allows George (and you) the right to ‘put’ the stock to someone at an agreed upon price, even if that price is lower than expected.  When their stock price went down, he made an incredible profit.  If you want more info on stock option strategies, check out Wade Cook’s books, they’re a plain talk explanation on how to use them.

 

Another example from one of my clients – They have to shut off the air conditioning and inconvenience the homeowner for 2 to 4 hours while they clean their ducts (Danger).  Instead I had them create an opportunity by partnering with local merchants – nail salons, hair dressers, spas, etc. and they create a pamper package.  Now when the homeowner returns my client has cleaned their ducts and returned the air climate to a comfortable temperature and the client has been on a pampering expedition.  Meanwhile some lucky local merchants have the benefit of potentially getting a new client from a great referral source.

 

Practical exercise:  Think of a current crisis situation in your business, personal or work life.  What is the danger?  What is the opportunity? How can you minimize the danger and take advantage of the opportunity?  By asking these questions of yourself, you’ll make things work when others only see a crisis. 

 

Perhaps for example your company is receiving negative press on the Internet for your customer service policies.  Is there an opportunity to change your customer service approach and create a unique niche for your company?  Target stores did this (though it didn’t take negative press to do it).  If Target sells it (or sold it) they’ll take your return even without a receipt.

 

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company, ActionCOACH.  If you would like to learn more about him, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill.

Sales Training – Maple Grove Minnesota

Attention Sales people and Sales Companies in Maple Grove: If I show you a way to increase your sales volume this year by at least $100,000 minimum, would that be worth paying me $40,000? This won’t require you to put forth any additional effort or time and it will probably save you time in your sales process. What if I told you I only would charge $20,000? What if I promised you a one year, no risk 100% money back guarantee? No matter what, if you don’t increase your sales then I’ll give you ALL your money back. Oh, by the way, I can only commit to work with 10 people this year so if you’re really interested, contact me right now. (612) 819-1803

I was explaining to a sales team the other day about the importance of having high value conversations. They prompted me to write this article and share with you this ‘secret’.

When I sit down with a prospective business owner, I explain to them what I do – help them find extra profits in their business. I explain how – by analyzing their financial records to pinpoint a specific dollar amount. At that point they’re usually ‘not sure’ or ‘want to think about it’. They are interested in hearing more, but not convinced. Have you ever have a prospect at a point they were almost ready to buy? At that point I explain my fee by telling them that if I don’t show them I can produce at least three to four times my fee in bottom line profit then I won’t ask for their business… but I will ask for referrals (never forget to ask).

Look over the first paragraph. Did I demonstrate to you that you would get at least three to four times the value? If you spend $20,000 and get $100,000, is that an investment or an expense? When you meet with prospects are you clearly showing exactly how you are worth MORE than what you are charging? When you talk to prospects are you creating value or creating an expense? Notice I did not ask if you are worth it, I asked are you creating it? Does the prospect see the value of investing in you? Do you demonstrate what return are they going to get on their money and exactly how are they going to get it?

By the way, notice that I also took all the risk away from you. You no longer have to worry about anything. In fact even if you sit on your butt and do nothing I’ll still give your money back a year later. Are you offering that kind of compelling value to your prospects? Unless you make the deal a sure bet, can’t lose proposition, your prospect will continue to hesitate. Not because they don’t want it, but because you’ve not overcome their fear of loss.

When you do this, your prospects will move forward because they know exactly how much it’s worth to them and it’s completely safe. Consider what this will do to your conversion rate. How many ‘fence sitters’ will now move forward and become customers? You tell me, will you make more than $20,000 this year when you start having high value conversations? If not, and your competitor starts having high value conversations, how much harder are you going to have to work?

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company, ActionCOACH.  If you would like to learn more about him, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill.

Alternatives To The Pyramid Organization

I see it many times, organization leaders struggling to get a little bit more performance out of their employees and their organization.  I imagine it quite like looking for rocket ship performance out of an automobile.  No matter what you do, it’s never going to fly.

 

Structure creates limits

Consider the structure of organizations – designed in a pyramid structure.  The purpose of the pyramid structure is to give stability and permanence.  Consider how long the Pyramids in Egypt have lasted.  Unfortunately it sacrifices growth and change.  Compare this to the organization of a free market economy – a trade based structure.  No centralized control, no hierarchy, yet there is still an organization to it.  It’s able to accomplish dramatic changes in a nation.  Look at all the developing countries that have recently switched from a planned economy to free market. 

 

Rocket ship organizations

What would happen if we took this ‘rocket ship’ of a free market and applied it inside an organization?  Imagine employees free to create and innovate because they are rewarded to do so.  What might that do for your employee suggestion program?  What if employees were rewarded financially for helping other employees develop and grow? How would that change your company’s mentoring programs?

  

This might sound great but how exactly would this work?  For starters, look for systems and models in the free market that can transfer to the corporate world.  Bring a venture capitalist system, along with an appropriate reward (perhaps a 10% license royalty) into the corporation and suddenly you’ll have more ideas than the old employee suggestion box ever gave.  Bring an executive recruiter into your organization and assign them the responsibility to find and promote the best talent from within.  If you need to do it at no cost then consider an employee paid approach – The employee pays a percentage fee of their future earnings.  Now you don’t have the expense of finding talent outside the organization and employees are finally empowered to manage their careers.

 

Here’s one of my favorites, because it’s quick and low cost… having trouble getting your employees to control costs?  Create a negotiation department that is responsible for training employees how to negotiate and for negotiating on their behalf (if needed) with vendors, suppliers and customers.  Now give employees an incentive for doing so.  It could be a percentage of the savings or it could be as simple as tracking and accounting the amount of value they create for the organization.  Imagine employees bragging how much they saved or made for the company.  Why? because it’s in their best interest to do so.  Managers will want people on their team that can demonstrate specific dollar value.  Managers can then build winning teams that are experienced at getting high value returns.  Of course you want to add other measures such as vendor and customer loyalty.  You can’t have them negotiating at the expense of stability.

 

Oh, people have told me that this department already exists, centralized purchasing.  Uh,  nope.  That department is focused on negotiating low priced contracts.  Only contracts.  Their goal is creating contracts, not creating employees trained to negotiate value and control costs.  Ask how many well trained employees they created vs. how many contracts.

  

Sue Bushnell recently wrote an article about these ideas and more at cio.com. http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;913070162.   I also have an ebook on this if you’re interested, just email me and request a copy.

 

 

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company, ActionCOACH.  If you would like to learn more about him, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill.

Other Coaching Sites

Looking for more?

http://goldenboar.com/businesscoaching/2008/08/05/business-coaching-news-august-2008/

Is Receiving Training From an Employer Essential or Over-rated?

Receiving training is essential but often over-rated, because training is too often mis-structured.

There are 2 components to the process, teaching and learning.  Have you ever heard the saying ‘if you want to really learn something, teach it?”  Learning is an interactive process – teachers are the students *because* they are actively engaged in the learning process.  Too often, students are assigned (and accept) a passive role in the process and are not engaged in learning.  Think of any one-way lecture you’ve attended, how much do you recall? How much have you applied?

So, what is a better way to structure the learning process? Engage the student in the process. For example, when I was in the US Army, I learned much about office politics and the nature of hierarchy – how to use the rules to my advantage even though I was not a high-ranking officer or sergeant.  While the US Army is clearly a training based organization, they do not teach classes on office politics or how to use the rules to your personal advantage.  The US Army is structured as a learning based organization but did not teach me corporate ‘survival skills’, I learned them on my own.

I also realized that everyone is eager to give you advice, so I developed a testing process.  I looked at the results they were achieving and looked for evidence they were applying their advice in their own situation.  If so, and if it was the results I desired, then I would consider accepting the advice.

I used this knowledge when I designed mentoring programs for corporate.  I had a saying “there is no teaching, only learning’.  This kept me focused on the importance of structuring the environment for learning, not teaching.

To anyone starting in any position, actively learn from everyone and every situation, including the training programs offered.  Just remember, the best lessons are the ones you learn, not the ones you are taught.

I am a business and executive coach. If you would like to learn more about me, check out my website at http://srkinc.com. or to get involved http://quantumcommonwealth.com