1. Be better organised and systematic in their approach
2. Outsource more (the time comsuming repititive tasks)
3. Understand the way customers think (ie from the customers perspective)
4. Follow up on opportunities, connections and quotes
5. Follow a business, sales and marketing plan
6. Increase prices (understand their true value)
7. Stop self sabotaging behaviours (a high need to focus on controlling their impluses and unchecked thoughts)
8. Network better, more frequently and systematically
9. Asking for help (not fearing to admit they don’t know everything)
10. Pay for services – stopping the Do-It-Yourself  mentality

What will you do differently in 2010 to get what you want?

Sue!

1. Is this what I really want?

Being in business brings all sorts of challenges, changes and opportunities and sometimes we can be led in a direction that we really don’t want to go and for many reasons (cashflow, family comitments, staff, technology etc). If we don’t stop on a regular basis to check in and see if we are headed in the right direction chances are we will end up somewhere we don’t want to be.

Stop at least once a month and ask yourself the very important question “is this where I want to be and am I going where I want to go?” you might be surprised by the answer you get.

2. What would my mentor do?

I’ve been very fortunate that I have had exceptional mentors thoughout my life and in my business, during the times when I’m unsure about an activity or I find myself doing unproductive things (like procrastinating) I think about what my business mentor would do. I know for sure she would not spend hours engaged in activities that can be outsourced while she focusses on growing the business and doing the things that are dollar productive.

Most times it’s as simple as saying to myself “What would my mentor be doing/do in this situation?” it’s a great question to ask as it helps me see a different angle to how I initially approach a situation. If you don’t have a mentor think about someone you know or know of  in business that is really successful at what they do and ask yourself the same question “what would X do in this situation?”

3. Self Talk – A quality conversation

I have read 100′s of business and self help/motivation books and the majority of them discuss the importance of what you say to yourself, having positive thoughts and using affirmations in one form or another. In my book Accelerate: How to accelerate yourself, your business & your networking skills I have a quote “if you spoke to your friends the same way you speak to yourself would you have any?”

We are human so we are going to experience a range of emotions both positive and negative, we will have a range of thoughts both positive and negative and we will or won’t speak to ourselves in a helpful and positive manner. The exact same way we think about and speak to our friends, business colleagues, loved ones and families.

I have trained myself as often as possible to have quality conversations, when a negative thought or feeling comes in I acknowledge it and move to a more helpful ‘quality’ conversation or thought.

Is this easy? NO does it need lots of practice? – YES, do I always do it? – NO (i’m human too!) is there a magic solution? - NO Can I buy a book to learn? PROBABLY will it work? MAYBE why is it worth it? – TO GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT!

I have searched high and low for the seminar, books, coaching, mentoring, workshops, meditations to ‘take control of my thoughts’ and here is what i have learnt – YOU DO NOT NEED TO KEEP SPENDING MONEY ON LEARNING HOW TO DO THIS all you need to do is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE and eventually your mind will hold it’s own quality conversations and you will start to correct yourself – without the aid of any outside assistance.

Put some STOPPING and THINKING time in your diary today and reap the results you REALLY want from your business.

Until Next time… I’ll be thinking!

Sue

I always know when the silly season starts; as soon as the invitations start to arrive for Melbourne Cup Day, I  know the silly season is on my doorstep once again.   And I ponder how m

I was recently reminded of the frailties of human nature and the damage a few too many champagnes can do during the silly season. Enjoying an outdoor lunch overlooking the harbour on the weekend I saw a young woman (no more than 25) stumbling along in a gorgeous designer dress and too die for shoes with smeared mascara and clearly one too many champagnes being supported by her “work mates” in her attempt to walk a straight line.

The scene reminded me of a saying a business colleague gives her staff every year before their end of year function “keep yourself nice, no-one likes a messy drunk”.  My colleague loves a good party and has no problem with a few champagnes, however, she draws the line at over indulgence at work-do’s and I agree with her. There is a time and place for everything and work, business and your career are not the places for over indulgence with the champagne.

Here are a couple of tips for keeping yourself nice this season:

1. Eat well; make sure that you have enough food to balance the amount of alcohol you are consuming

2. Drink plenty of water in between; keeping yourself well hydrated is essential for your health as well as a good tool for slowing your pace between drinks down

3. Pace yourself; end of year functions and Christmas parties can go for anwhere between 2-8 hours. Consciously think about how many drinks you are having and pace yourself – there is usually no prize for guzzeling at these events.

4. Wear sensible shoes; after a champagne or two it does become a bit tricky balancing on pencil thin towers  and if you do have a propensity to do 4 – 5 champers you are asking for trouble. I must point out I said sensible shoes not nana shoes (according to my friend Sam Woods from Vibrant Concepts) these should be avoided at all costs.

5. Get a ‘keep yourself nice buddy‘; a work colleague that will keep their eye on you and remind you to keep yourself nice if you start to stray into ‘messy drunk land’.

6. Think before you speak or act; One of my favourite sayings is “loose lips sink ships”, and the quickest way to create loose lips is too much alcohol giving you a sense of bravado and confidence you wouldn’t normally have. Think about the consequences of saying something innapropriate or that should not be revealed before you say it.

7. Amorous behaviour is for the bedroom not the work-do; Yep you know what I’m talking about – the Christmas party pash that you think no-one will know about or see. Think again! these things have a way of attracting attention on their own.  And if you are with your partner no-one wants an insight to what goes on behind your closed doors. Be respectful of the people you work with and that are around you.

Now for those of you that know me well you know I love a good party and celebration so do enjoy yourself – just remeber to keep yourself nice this silly season!

Until next time, enjoy your parties

Sue

I think the power of the internet is amazing, I believe that email is a wonderful thing surely it’s not meant to replace the art of a simple conversation. I’m a verbal communicator I respond to and thrive on conversation and interaction. I don’t want to spend my days constructing emails and responses when a quick conversation can get the same result in less time!

The simple art of conversation allows us to explore opportunites and areas that a email cannot; imagine you are on the phone with a customer and they tell you something that prompts an idea in your mind and an OPPORTUNITY to make a new sale or to upsell or cross sell, promote, advertise whatever appears, you have right in that moment the glorious advantage of securing it. Now if the same were said for email – how would that work – you would need to construct (an appropriate) email response back to your client and rely on the power of the written word alone – phewy I say!!! Do you know how long it will take you to construct that email so that it doesn’t sound like too much of a sales pitch??

In fact here is a story worth re-telling up until 4 months ago I was a member of an online professional development group for a particular aspect of my business and had been for almost two years. I decide to cancel my membership for a number of reasons but for this story we will keep it simple… I simply found information from another source that was more relevant at the time. Now back to what happened… I received an email from the assistant to the owner of this online forum asking would I like to reconsider  and pay an additional fee that would take me up to “lifetime” member status and could I get back to them…. ah let me think about that for a minute…. You couldn’t be bothered to pick up the phone and call? and your assistant sent the email? I don’t think so… two weeks later another long email arrives pointing out all the benefits of the forum and membership and the “lifetime” benefits again from the assistant… do you think I changed my preferred style of communication in those two weeks?? And do you really understand what I need, value and want as a customer?? Here is the cold hard facts – if someone had bothered to pick up the phone I more than likely would have taken up the offer.

And here’s another story… I sent a proposal to a potential customer and followed up with a PHONE CALL a week after I sent the proposal. They never returned my call… poor me… so I followed up the following week with you guessed it a PHONE CALL… they never returned my call… I did this for 6 weeks and in between sent three emails stating that I had called and could they get back to me. No response – I’ m ok if you don’t want to work with me there are others out there that do and I won’t be crushed by you saying no – and if not me I might just know the right person to connect you with (after all I am a networking expert!) but have the common courtesy and manners to call back.

If developing relationships in business is heading to email contact only - I want no part of it I want human interaction! I want to enjoy the process of discovering the qualities, talents, values and traits of the people who I meet. I’m happy to post content to blogs and share my thoughts and conversations via twitter and facebook and other online mediums but I do not want to lose the simple pleasure of enjoying the art of conversation.

If you would like a chat – give me a call 612 4243 0779

Sue!

Here is a fact, there is no need to be stressed about your networking efforts.

I received a phone call from one of my clients this morning in a state of what can only be described as ‘self imposed networking stress’ . Last week I set them the task of researching the best options for their networking efforts and asked that they come back to me by end of business today with a networking strategy and plan for the next 6 months. Now the plan itself is the easy part (I provide them with a template to follow) what has become difficult for the client is what they are saying to themselves.

The task set was a simple one:

1. Take a look at the purpose for your networking, do you want to network for business leads, professional development, social interaction or business branding?

2. Identify any networking functions that you could attend to fulfill this purpose.

3. Identify any contacts (personal/professional) that could assist in fulfilling this purpose

4. Set a budget for the six month period

5. Put it into a draft plan and let’s discuss.

Not so difficult??? Well here is what has happened the purpose was identified as professional development , source  business suppliers and leads in that order of importance.

When my client moved to step two and started to research the options available they began to discount some events based on the perceptions of who might be there, how they would interact with them, they began to feel inferior and lacking in ‘networking skills’ because of the perceived attendees, their knowledge, experience and standing in the industry.

The end result of this thinking is they have spent 4 days avoiding the task because each time they use our friend www.google.com to find networking groups the same thoughts, fears and stress starts to creep in and they end up playing the “i’m not good enough tune” in their head.

So here is the FACT to this story – no-one else knows what you don’t know or what is going on in YOUR head!!!!

You can play all the tunes in your head that you like …they know more than me… …i’m not good enough… …they are more experienced than I am… …they wouldn’t be interested in talking to me… BLAH BLAH BLAH.  Here’s an insight – YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE listening to the tunes! No one can look at you and accurately tell you exactly what you are thinking and feeling.  So put on you networking face and get out there, it will be the easiest way to overcome the chatter going on in your head once you PROVE to YOURSELF that the tunes being played out are not true. Procrastination and avoidance will paralyse your path to success, ACTION will take you where you want to go.

So, what happened with my client? They got the Sue Henry talk and are now booked to attend a networking event tonight!

Have you got success paralysing tunes playing in your head?

Until next time, have fun

Sue Henry

I was fine with building rapport with people – I didn’t even have a problem making an appointment, however, when it came to selling I turned into an utter babbling goof! My heart would race, my palms would sweat and I would have ringing in my ears so loud that I could hardly hear anything the person I was with was saying.

I would hear myself saying things that were not my words or beliefs and I would procrastinate on the list of “possibles” sometimes for days.  I would go over that list thinking – “I wonder if they would be interested?” or “They already have X why would they want to buy from me” or “What if they don’t like me?” or ” What if I don’t know how to answer one of their questions?”or “They might not need it” “they might think it’s too expensive” and the list went on and on and on……

I had actaully built an image in my mind of selling that was based on experiences I had encountered while I was buying products or services …the image of the car salesman that sold me a car that cost me an additional $2,000 in repairs! …the image of a telemarketer trying to sell me a timeshare that I had no interest or desire in …the salesperson that tried to bluff their way through some questions I had when I was buying a new stereo …the image of the salespeople I worked with.

Not one thing in my mind was about the customer, their needs or the belief and passion in what I had to offer. It was all about me and my buying experiences and my PERCEPTION of sales and how to do it! – After all, I had been exposed to many examples good and bad, I’d had sales training, I’d read sales “How to” books and I’d seen the salespeople around me sell and the techniques they used. So what was missing?

Two things 1. Belief in my product and 2. Ownership of my natural style.

I had doubts about what I was selling and instead of facing those doubts and seeing how they could be overcome I allowed them to cloud what I was doing. And I found myself employing “sales tactics” and using text book solutions, and trying to emulate how others sold. Bottom line, ignoring these two things had created a fear of selling.

So every time I opened my mouth I lost a potential sale, and of course there were all those other factors… the other sales people had better lists, bigger customers, the ecomony was bad, etc, etc. So I went to work for another company that had better systems, etc, etc, etc. Now I had 18 months good experience, fantastic relationships and still the same results. To cut a very long story short this is how I managed to find the key to overcome my fear of selling…

Belief in my Product
I listed all my doubts about the product/service I was offering, then I counter balanced this list with reality. I discussed my doubts with the sales manager and the other sales people to get their PERCEPTION. I even asked potential customers what their doubts were. Now I had a big list that could be assessed logically, I managed to eliminate the doubts and began to get results.

Ownership of my Natural Style
The second and most critical thing I did was I asked my manager to come on a sales appointment with me to give me feedback on “my technique”. Immediately after the first appointment we went on, he simply said “where is Sue Henry today? I have just sat through that appointment with a sales text book, sure you followed the steps to closing a sale, however, you never used words or phrases that you normally do, your tone of voice changed and you looked frightened”.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – I could clearly see where I had made my mistakes I was trying to be a sales person and close the sale! The next time I went on an appointment, I talked passionately to the customer about what I had to offer, I even discussed all their concerns and yes you guessed it I made the sale.

For every sales job after that one and in my own business today I discuss passionately what I can offer and the sale happens naturally.

Have a great day

Sue Henry!!

I don’t know or have a desire to know what a DOHC is on a car -  I want to know if the car is reliable.

I don’t care what an inner coil spring made with titanium is – I want to know I am getting a comfortable night’s sleep.

I don’t care what psychographics are – I want to know & understand how my customers think.

I see many businesses promoting their products and services using trade  specific language to talk to their customers, and I see customers with puzzled stares and glazed over eyes trying to work out how to or even if they should spend their money.

To connect and engage with your customers you must speak directly to them in their language.

A customers language and understanding is made up from how they view the world, their values and their beliefs which are formed from a variety of sources that are meaningful to them. Primarily their family, friends, education, up-bringing, work enviroment, past experiences etc.

To really connect with your customers you must have some understanding of what these values and beliefs are; what is most important to them?

Here’s an example of how it works in my business:

I have been sending out an electronic newsletter to my customers and the people I meet for just on ten years now,  there are a growing percentage of people who receive the newsletter that always print it out to read it. So I produce a percentage of printed newsletters to send to these people, now I don’t always know who the people that print it out are and I have been adding the ones to my print list as I discover who they are.

Which is a bit of a hit and miss approach, there are clearly people on that list that prefer and (importantly value reading printed materials rather than electronic ones) to receive a printed copy so to respond to the needs and understand the values of my customers and contacts I’m about to survey the entire list.

This will assist me to see who would prefer to receive it via hard copy so that I can engage with my customers and contacts the way they want to be engaged with not in the way that is easiest for me!

Do you really understand who your customer is or do you have a generalised approach?

Take 10 minutes out of your day now to write down the three things your customers value the most and initiate change into your business to meet the needs of your customers.

Have a great day!

Sue Henry

1. “…I need to mix with like-minded business owners but i’m afraid to share with them what is really going on in my business, they might not think much of me…”

What many business owners fail to do is recognise that the challenges they are having are often the same that the majority of people in business face. Unfortunately in this world there are people that judge others on appearance and perception so it is understandable why many do put on a ‘brave face’ and tell others “everything is ok”.

If you are in “brave face syndrome” it’s really important for you to get out and meet people that you can be honest with. Does this mean you tell everyone you meet your challenges? Absolutley not, what it does mean is that you need to be able to source the right people that you can build trusting relationships with and develop a level of trust so that you feel comfortable with sharing your challenges.

Are these ‘trusted people’ easy to find? No, not always. Networking events and forums are not the place to ‘dump’ your problems on others, they are a great way to connect with other business owners and start the relationship process and exchange ideas. At many of these events you will meet people that can help you, you need to go with your trust radar on so that you can identify the people that can assist you, and in a manner that is beneficial not harmful or self interest driven. A great way is to really clarify in your own mind what the actual challenges are, for example if marketing is a challenge you might think about what specifically is the challenge, is it the research, the methods, budgeting, finding the right supplier, how to determine what works? The more you have clarity on what your chalenges are the easier it is going to find the right person to assist you.

More to the point people that usually have this thought have either run out of money, have over commited themselves or are emabrrassed that they are not turning over as much as they would like. The simple solution?

Get help. There are plenty of government agencies that offer free advice and there is plenty available on the internet. Alternatively engage a business consultant or a business coach to get you on track and can connect you with people that can help you with your challenges.

2. “…I hate going to events where I know there are clicky groups of people, it makes me feel inadequate and uncomfortable..”

 Ok, here it is in plain english…. Get real and GET OVER IT!!!! Now that I have that off my chest here is some constructive information… You should never feel uncomfortable when attending a networking event, clicks will be everywhere you go it’s just a fact of life. We are taught it at an early age in the school playground, unfortunately not everyone grows out of it. You should only be attending networking events for one of three reasons; 1. to build business contacts and leads 2. to gain professional development or training and 3. for social interaction if you are feeling uncomfortable a large part will be because you are not clear on your purpose for attending.

Once you are clear on your purpose for attending you can develop a networking plan/strategy for while you are there to achieve your purpose. Now you can attend one event for all three reasons or for one or any combination, the thing to keep in mind is that some networking groups will offer all three and others won’t so you will need to determine which ones suit your needs the best.

Where there are “clicky” groups you will usually find that they have a prominance of the ‘social’ aspect to the groups purpose.

Something else to keep in mind – only you can make yourself feel uncomfortable! There may be environments that you don’t like or that have different values to your own that invoke those uncomfortable feelings. the key is to stay focussed on what YOU want not be worried about everyone else. Alternatively go to a different group that is in line with your values.

3. “…If only I was more outgoing or confident… I’d network more often”

I don’t believe you! I think that is a poor excuse for not networking. Ok so you might think that is a bit tough but that’s how it is. You are obviously good at what you do, otherwise you wouldn’t even be thinking networking is something for you.

Networking just like any other business related activity is something that gets easier with practice, there are thousands in fact millions of bits of information on how to be a better networker, be more confident etc on the internet just check in whith my friend mr google he will send back those millions of bits of information. A warning though information is only as good as it’s implementation!

If you really want results from your networking then there is only one guaranteed way forward and that is to simply do it and learn from each experience you have.

To your networking success!

Sue Henry

1. Fun – you might as well have fun while you are networking, it will make your activities easier to do and if the experiences you are having are fun you are more likely to do them again. Don’t take yourself or others too seriously.

2. Support – You do not have to do it alone, enrol the assistance of your friends, family, business associates, business coach or mentor to support you and be supportive in your networking endeavours.

3. Belonging – look at your networking as being part of a community of fellow networkers all working towards the same goal. This is where networking groups can help many of them are structured to assist their members to be inclusive and feel like part of a bigger team. If you don;t like going to functions form your own little networking community locally with at least two other businesses.

Check out the upcoming program for Dynamic Networking designed to help you implement these three values into your networking

Until next time keep Smiling

Sue

sunrise reject the recession campaign

P.s – We have joined the Sunrise Reject the Recession Campaign and are offering 10% off all our products and services

Instead of giving my friend the first thought that popped into my head (professional jealousy – I also know Betty) I asked her had she ever had any conversations with Betty regarding her business or if she had ever pitched her business to Betty’s company? Two things came out of the conversation that followed  1. My friend hadn’t ever directly asked Betty for work and  2. Betty was professionally jealous of my friends success in business.

Often we miss opportunities because we simply fail to ask the people we already know and spend our time chasing new customers.  Make a list of all the people that you call friends and family and ask yourself the simple question: Does this person know what I do? and Are they willing to refer me? Once you have your list of yes’s then you need to be educating them in who is your ideal customer.

The important thing that my friend realised was the fact that not all of her friends support what she does, in fact when we explored the situation further it wasn’t that Betty didn’t want her to succeed it was that Betty would like to be in her own business but does not (is not willing) to do what it takes. So the fact is Betty is unwilling to refer my friend because if she does in Betty’s mind it’s a reminder of her own failure to take action. The best thing my friend can do is change her own beliefs and thoughts about Betty and acknowledge that’s just how it is with Betty. I also reminded my friend of all our other friends that support her and refer business to her and encouraged her to focus on those. After all we do get what we focus on!

The harsh truth is there are people like Betty in the world and there are probably Betty’s in your circle, as there are in mine. Wish them well, smile and graciously put aside your dissapointment at not being referred by them I’m sure there are many that want to help and refer you!

Keep smiling !
Sue