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Classy and Refreshing: My Take On Drew Brees Breaking Marino’s Record

Published on December 27th, 2011 by in coaching, Life

First off, it was great to see Brees break Dan Marino’s long standing passing yard record.  I think it’s a great achievement for Brees and long overdue.  Most people don’t remember that he came within just 1 pass back in 2008.  But he has patiently waited this long to have another shot at the record.

I think it’s not only good for Brees and his team, but good for all the fans and especially all the kids watching.  This idea that it’s bad sportsmanship to go for a record and “run up the score” flat out disgusts me.  These guys get paid millions of dollars to play a sport and score touchdowns.  You wouldn’t ask your kid to just get B’s the last few weeks of school or not take a final test because they were blowing away the grade point averages in class…  And you sure wouldn’t ask your top sales guy to “take easy” in the last few days of the quarter so the guys in 2nd and 3rd place wouldn’t be embarrassed would you?  I seriously doubt it.

But for some reason, there’s an unwritten “code” of ethics in sports that says, “do your best as long as it doesn’t embarrass the other guy”.  I think that’s just ridiculous and it sets a bad example for the next generation.  The code should simply be, “do your best at all times”.  Sportsmanship is not rubbing it in their face and being a gracious winner as well as respectful during and after the game.  That consists of the way you talk about your team and others as well as your actions on the field or the way you talk to the other players during the game.  Sportsmanship has everything to do with doing your best and winning.

So yes, I find it classy, refreshing, and a good example to the next generation for a team to rally around their leader and help him achieve a milestone that could be around for a long time.  I also find it classy that their coach Sean Payton said, “let’s get the record”.  It meant just as much to him as Brees and if you watched the team rally around Brees after the score, you know it meant a lot to them as well.  It was a victory to all of them.

That last thing about this that burns me is that Atlanta didn’t have to give it to him and in fact, didn’t.  They just got beat.  If Atlanta didn’t want them to score, they should have stopped Brees.  But they didn’t.  So if you want to blame someone for running up the score, focus in on the Atlanta defense that couldn’t stop the Saints.  After all, it was the Atlanta defense that DIDN’T do their job.  The Saints were merely showing up for work and doing their best.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you may wonder what this has to do with business???  A lot actually.  Teamwork, leadership, hard work, and doing your best at all times.  All great lessons for any entrepreneur.  But that’s a story for another day…

 
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5 Compelling Reasons why your business should be on facebook

Published on December 7th, 2011 by in business coaching, facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Technolgoy
1.  Your prospects ARE there – With approximately 1 Billion users and somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 to 200 million of those users in the USA alone, there’s a good chance your prospects have an account and view it with some kind of regularity.  If you are B to C business, the odds are even greater that your prospect is on Facebook and regularly looks at their account.  If your target market is women ages 18 to 50, the odds are even better.

2.  Websites are going to go bye-bye – I’ve said this a few times, but I’ll say it again.  Websites are going to be history very soon.  Right now, they are still needed to view some content, process transactions, and a few other things, but over time, you are going to see people migrating away from websites in favor of just having social media pages.

3.  Gives them what they want – Social interaction is what they are looking for.  We are living in a world that is getting disconnected from live interaction in favor of online social interaction.  The people crave it…  Your market craves it…  Exhibit 1 – a billion users on Facebook.  A billion users isn’t a fad, it’s a bold statement.

4.  Displays your Personality – People want to see who they are dealing with.  They want to know if you just want their money or if you are fun and quirky like them.  Social media is a bit of competition to see who can post the funniest and often weirdest stuff to get attention.  The more of your personality that comes out, the better off you are in the social world.  That is unless you are complete bore.  In that case, you better hire someone who isn’t to manage your social profiles…  J  But please get my point here, that people what to “know” you better and what better way that to spy on you, your company, and your entire life (including family, friends, cousins, distant relatives, college friends, and acquaintances) than your Facebook profile!

5.  Has become a standard – I think this one speaks for itself, but don’t buy it from me.  Test it!  Go to any major online brand and look at their website.  They are likely to have a facebook “like us” button at a minimum.  They also have embedded on many articles and pages of their site.  Watch TV for 10 minutes and notice how almost every commercial has a “Like us” on facebook tag at the end or throughout their entire commercial.  Pick up your junk mail and flip through it.  Odds are you will find facebook “like us” logos and links on most of the pieces.

 
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WHY is More Important Than How or What

Published on October 21st, 2011 by in Business, business coaching, coaching, Finding your why

Ever wonder why some people seem to be able to get more done than you?  Or how about the dedication that some people have to their family, business, a charity, cause, or whatever.  It always intrigues me to see someone so passionate about something that they are not only willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals, but they are also getting stuff done at a speed that is just mind-boggling.

The secret to their success can be summed up in this little word:  WHY

Why they are doing whatever “it” is, is what drives them.

Having a PURPOSE makes you purposeful with every move you make.

Understanding what’s on the line, drives you to care about the end result more than the steps that will get you there.

If we take a step back and examine the way most people work and think, you will see a distinct difference.

The average person thinks….  How do I accomplish this? And then they ask the question, What do I do now or next?  But while those questions are good to ask, they often take center stage and overshadow the why.  It’s easy to get wrapped up in the [How] and the [What] and actually forget about [Why] altogether.

Ever hear the phrase, “life is a journey not a destination”? or “you have to take time to enjoy the ride”?  While that’s great advice to enjoy the journey, we often get distracted from our destination by all the speed bumps and challenges along the way.

Ever see the movie “Vacation”?  Easily one of my favorite movies of all time.  Clark Griswold was definitely focused on the destination.  Didn’t matter what happened along the way, they were going to Wally World and they were going to have fun whether they liked it or not.  I admire the passion, but it’s not quite the example we are looking for here.  But I bet many of us relate.

The other example I think of is one of my favorite athletes when I was growing up and that’s Michael Jordan.  Most people think they know his story about being cut from the basketball team in high school.  But what most people don’t know about that is why he got cut.  You see, he had the talent to be on the team.  In fact, he had more talent than everyone on the team put together.  The problem was that he didn’t understand WHY he should be on the team.  His coach saw something in him that he hadn’t seen before and knew it was special.  So he made Michael commit to practicing every day with him for a year with no guarantee of getting on the team.  While I don’t have time to explain the whole story, let’s just say he found out WHY during all those practices.  His WHY was a long-term vision of being the greatest player to ever play the game and winning an NBA championship along the way.  Many would agree he is the greatest player in NBA history and he won 6 titles.

So how does this all relate?  Many people go through life like Clark Griswold barreling their way toward something.  The secret to real success is knowing WHY.  You see, while it’s a great movie (and I wouldn’t change a thing…), if you dig deeper you’ll see that Clark really didn’t have any reason why other than getting to the park and having some fun.  What if his [WHY] or [Purpose] for the trip was to create a bond with his family, make heartfelt memories, and make the trip their best summer vacation ever!  You get a different outcome when your WHY is right.  You also enjoy the journey!

To put a little more perspective on this, imagine being so passionate about your WHY that you enjoy the otherwise meaningless daily tasks.  Or better yet, you relish the opportunity to take on each challenge along the way.  Do you think you would do a better job if you enjoyed the challenges?  Do you think it’s easier to do something when you know the impact it will make to the long-term WHY?  You bet it does.

Some questions you can ask yourself to be more effective:

  • Always ask, WHY am I doing this?
  • What’s the purpose of this?
  • What part does this play in my long-term vision, my WHY, life goals, etc?
  • How can I enjoy even the most trivial tasks or challenges?

This is a big can of worms for most people.  So my last bit of advice is don’t got it alone.  Find a coach, mentor, or friend that can help you get perspective.  If need help discovering your WHY, reach out to me at michael@michaellejeune.com.  I’m happy to give you some specific advice for your situation.

 
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12 Disciplines Of Every Successful Company

Published on October 14th, 2011 by in Business, business coaching, business planning, business plans, coaching, discipline, getting organized, Key Performance Indicators, KPI, Marketing, Optimize, Organization, organize my business, Sales, Starting your own business

A common daily question that business owners have is:  What should our company be doing better?  I literally hear this every time I meet a business owner.  Initially, I thought the answer to this question depended on what that business did, or their industry, or maybe several other factors that were unique to that business…  BUT what I’ve found after studying this for several years now is that almost everything you need to do to improve your business will fall into the following 12 Disciplines.  If your company can master these and constantly work on them, you will see tremendous results.

So here are the disciplines and a brief outline of what I’m talking about for each.  More info to come on each of these in the future….

1. Optimizing – Most people are great at starting new things or doing stuff the same way forever.  But to build a truly amazing company, you must have a focus on improving and optimizing what you are doing.  I like to focus on a couple of areas first.  I like to work on current promotions, tracking leads and opportunities, and expenses.  These areas can have a fast impact and boost your bottom line quickly.

2. Team Building – If you want a strong company that operates with or without you, you need a team.  The foundation of the team is your leadership team.  The core of your leadership team is built on communication, mindset and beliefs.  Your building blocks for making it all work together are your Vision, Culture, Integrity, Accountability, and Systems.

3. Sales Process – Map it out from first impression to a closed sale.  Use a CRM!  This is a nonnegotiable.

4. Sales Scripts – What do you say and when do you say it in the process?  What phrases work and which ones cause problems during a sale?  Know this stuff and teach it to EVERYONE on your team!

5. Overcoming Objections – Start by making a list of common objections.  Address common objections during the sales process to minimize them at the end.  Position all your interactions with the prospects so they expect the sale…

6. Customer Service – How do you treat your customers?  Do you survey them?  Do you have standard response times?  How about WOW factors?  What information do you gather about your clients so you can impress them?

7. Knowing Your Ideal Client – Know who you like to work with and who you don’t.  Know who’s a good fit for your company and when you are forcing a round peg into a square hole just for a dollar.  Have a set of criteria that you use to accept a client.

8. Telling Your Story – What makes your company special?  What problems does your company address for the industry.  What makes your product/service better than the rest?  What are the real intangible benefits to working with you?

9. Perfecting Your Follow Up To Current Customers – The first sale is only the beginning of the relationship.  How can you keep your customers coming back over and over again?

10. Hiring – A bad hire will cost you as much as 60K.  Learn how to find, recruit, screen, and train good talent.  It will change your business from the inside out.  Very powerful.

11. Strategy – This is the long-term piece of your planning.  Thinking and planning 5 years or more out, creating a roadmap, milestones, and targets.  Involves thinking about what you want to accomplish and working your way backwards to the present day.  Also includes thinking of ways to accomplish more with each move you make.

12. 90 Day Planning – The strategy is great, but if you don’t get out the business every 90 days and clear your mind, review where you are, and get down in the details, you are going to be in trouble.  This is a key part of growing and maintaining an amazing business.

Want to know more about these 12 disciplines?  Want to Master them?  I have a 6 month training series coming up on this soon.  Email me  michael@michaellejeune.com and set you up with all info…

 
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Mike’s Top 10 Ways to Grow Any Business

Published on October 5th, 2011 by in Business, business coaching, business planning, business plans, coaching, Key Performance Indicators, KPI, Marketing, Optimize, Organization, organize my business, Persistance, Persistence, Sales, Starting your own business, trends in virtual companies

I get asked all the time about how to quickly and easily grow a company.  My short answer is that there are NO silver bullets!  It doesn’t matter what business you are in, there’s no single way to jump your sales overnight.  And there’s really no way at all to do it effortlessly.

That said, if you want tried and true ways to grow literally any business on planet, read on…

Here’s a list of my personal 10 favorites that work in literally every situation I’ve ever been in.  And by the way, that ranges from advanced business solutions to manure farmer (Yes, I’ve actually coached a manure farmer).  I’ve used this in all situations and they flat-out work!

Mike’s top 10 ways to grow any company

  1. Reach out to past leads that didn’t close and see if they are now ready to buy. – Most sales are lost for lack of follow-up.
  2. Reach out to current customers and see if they could use an upgrade or cross sell them into another product or service.  What if every one of your customers purchased just 10% more from you?
  3. Ask everyone, past clients, current clients, people who don’t close in a demo; for a REFERRAL!  People will give you referrals if you ask.  Even if it doesn’t work more than 10 or 20% of the time, that’s better than 0% which is what I bet most of you reading this are getting right now.
  4. Increase your prices.  If you are worth it, charge more.  Cheap = you get what you pay for.
  5. Review your promotions and discounts to find ways of adding value instead of just giving discounts.  I recently reduced the cost of a promotion for a client from $15 to $9 (a savings of $6 per sale).  We reduced the plain cash discount to $5 cash off and a product that cost him $4 but had a perceived value of $10 (still a $15 value to the customer).  Doesn’t sound like much until you hear that he sells 200 of these deals per month.  That equals 200 sales times $6 or $1,200 per month/$14,400 per year.
  6. Review your marketing to see what’s working and what isn’t.  Cut what isn’t working and redirect those funds to what is.
  7. Pick up the phone and call all your customers just to see how they are doing.  You will be amazed at how many will refer business or let you in on a need they have (that you can help with) if you just communicate with them regularly.
  8. Invest 1 hour a week honing your sales skills, presentation/demo, etc.  Get better at closing!
  9. Implement a multi-touch sales and marketing system so that every lead gets “touched” a minimum of 20 times before you give up on it.
  10. Be authentic! – It’s not enough to be funny, cute, or original.  People want to see how real you are.  Show a real side to who you are and what your company is about and more people will buy.
Bonus 11th and 12th Tips…
11. Implement KPI’s in each key area of your business.  Tracking is actually a strategy that will improve your performance.  This one is highly underestimated.
12.  Implement a CRM into your sales process.  There’s no excuse here.  Zoho.com has an amazing free system, Salesforce.com is superb.  This step will increase your sales departments effectiveness by 40% or more.

For more strategies and tips on how to grow your business, email me at michael@michaellejeune.com

Have an interesting tip or strategy you want to share?  Send them in.  I’d love to share with the world!

 
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