Talk to many highly-accomplished executives, and they will often point out that a key to their success comes from surrounding themselves with good people to consult and bounce ideas off of.
I’d like to crowdsource some information by asking you to leave me a comment here. Here are some of the things I’m hoping you’ll share:
• Do you surround yourself with good people?
• How do you find or determine who “good people” are?
• Do you talk with them regularly, or only when you feel you need their specific expertise?
• What suggestions do you have for the rest of us?
I say it too often, but it’s only because I love it so…and because it’s profound. And because it’s more often than not, true!
“Everything is hard until it’s easy.”
Small business owners sometimes find themselves believing that everything is hard, if not impossible. They can easily fall into the trap of believing that it’s just how things are. Despair creeps in when an entrepreneur can’t seem to find a solution.
Enter the word, pivot. When what we’re doing doesn’t work, then pivot, change, do something different.
That’s not always the best solution though. Sometimes our business is on the right track, we’re just misusing the whip on the horse. Or we’re holding the bridle too tightly. Or we’ve got our heels hitting the horse, making him uncomfortable. And slower.
I tend to encounter a handful of issues that slow down small businesses who employ me to help them sort through the maze as they try to fix what ails them. It often results in a sense of overwhelming emotions, the impulse that screams, “We’ll never get all this fixed.”
In my experience, the truth is that many of these problems can be more easily solved than the owner thinks. The hardest part can sometimes be convincing the business owner that a fix is possible. And that it doesn’t require blowing up the joint.
Make no mistake, it is hard. Very hard. But once we come to terms with the reality of our problems, then we can more easily (and clearly) see the possible solutions. Then it gets easier. Not easy, but easier.
Once we determine we’re going to fix what ails us, and we embrace our own tenacity to make it so – that’s when it starts to get easy!
No, I won’t promote him, but his initials are JK. And it doesn’t stand for “just kidding.”
For a few weeks now I’ve seen him on the TV’s at the gym. He’s on every weekday. I’ve never heard the sound, but from 75 feet away I can see his body language and tell…he’s an A-1 jerk (actually, I can think of another J-name that likely fits better). He looms over people who are seated. He sticks his finger in their face. He interrupts them. He badgers them.
I know too many salespeople who somehow believe that they are the center of our Solar System. People should buy from them because they radiate such ingenuity and brilliance. Instead, people think they’re jerks and can’t wait to distance from them. Maybe they need to be on TV instead.
I’ve got two grandsons. Jake is 3 and his older brother Max will turn 5 this summer. They both ask lots of questions. Every little kid does. It’s how they learn. It’s how they make sense of things, but it’s also how they connect with people they’re learning to trust. The more connected they are with people, the more they’ll talk with them. Neither of them is given to walk up to a complete stranger and begin a conversation. But they’ll talk the legs off of adults they know.
All of us are selling. We’re selling ourselves, our ideas, our products and our services.
Questions help us learn about our prospects. They also help us establish rapport, trust and credibility. Think of them as touchpoints – points of human interaction and contact that help us make sense of things.
But touchpoints consist of more than simply asking quality questions. They consist of putting in the time to have meaningful contact and communication with prospects. Normally, the higher the price of our product or service, the more touchpoints we’ll likely need in order to create a happy customer.
Bert Decker, famed public speaking coach, calls it “first brain.” We must make a first brain connection, the place where we create an emotional connection. Unfortunately, I know too many salespeople who leap right over that touchpoint taking full aim at all the technical merits of their product or service. No touchpoints, no connection. No connection, no sale!
