The Achilles’ Heel of Management Coaching
While heading home at day’s end, you begin reflecting on a coaching meeting you had earlier that day with an employee, Chris. You hope that, this time, you finally succeeded in getting her to understand the importance of spending less time in disruptive socializing in the office and more time elevating her performance. If not, you feel that your only remaining alternatives are to give her a poor performance evaluation or demotion or may even fire her. You’re reluctant to do either of the first two things because you know these would disrupt the positive work relationship you’ve had with Chris. And you don’t really want to fire her. On the other hand, you’re running out of patience; this is the fourth time you’ve said something to Chris about the situation. Admittedly, the first few times, your comments may have missed the mark because you gave her only some casual feedback. But about a month ago, you held a formal coaching meeting with Chris, in which you discussed the situation in depth and came away thinking that she understood the need to change her behavior. In fact, she did change. But after a week or so, she was back to her old behavior.
Sound familiar? The most critical step in the management coaching process – getting an employee to agree there’s a need for improvement – is usually not well understood or well executed. Without that, there’s little likelihood of any permanent change.
The Differences Between A Commercial Collections Agency & Lawyer
If your letter writing and phone calls have all failed to resolve a debt issue, it is time to call in a professional - a commercial collection agency or a lawyer specializing in commercial debt collection.
The most obvious choice to collect an unpaid debt is a commercial collection agency. Agencies come in all sizes; some are local, some specialize in handling certain kinds of commercial debts and others are national in scope. The cost varies, depending on the volume of business you bring to the table and the amount of debt that is to be collected. Plan on paying 25 to 30 percent of the amount collected, with some agencies demanding a 50-50 split. Some commercial collection agencies offer a flat fee service that can help sift out some of the easier commercial debt to collect before paying a high percentage.
5 Bad and Lousy Words You Should Never Say In Your Sales Letter
Do you know exactly why people don’t seem excited to buy your product? Have you ever wonder why your competitors make more sales even though they have a terrible product to offer? Even worse, why people could not even be bothered to live their email address in your opt-in form and subscribe to your free newsletter?
You may wonder people just don’t feel interested to buy your product or maybe your price is too high. Or you have finally realized that your product is a pile of junk and decided to find another product to sell.
Beyond the Golden Rule
There are several types and sub types of people in the world. Getting to understand the differences will help you connect with other people.
This is taught in sales 101, because the need to connect with the people to make the sale.
However if we realize that we are always selling ourselves to others for cooperation and mutual benefit, it goes a long way to greater understanding and connection.
14 Top Lead Generation Tactics
According to former Harvard Business School professor David Maister, typical marketing practices are not only inapplicable for professional service firms, but they may be dangerously wrong.
Often professional service firm principals tell me they are frustrated with the quality of their marketing materials, they are concerned with their firm’s low profile or they feel pressure because their efforts are not generating enough new client leads. Are any of these issues for you?
A Fracas in the Franchise - Keep Your Customers by Keeping Your Workers
As a previous owner of a Franchise I know the importance of maintaining employee commitment, loyalty and enthusiasm in maximising customer satisfaction, generating positive customer perception and protecting your investment.
Repeat business is the life-blood of any business worth its salt. Coupled with a structured approach to increasing market share, looking at the ‘window of opportunity’ and delivering services with excellence and cultivating positive customer perceptions would appear to be a recipe for success.
6 Steps to Avoid Losing Summer Sales
It’s a fact - the online world dies down in the summer time. Kids are out of school, families are on vacation, there’s fairs to attend to, and many are just spending too much time outside to be online. For those that market mostly online, the summer months could be eating your profit. The good news is, it’s easy to take your product to where your market is - offline.
While some of you may moan and groan about leaving the comfort of your home to make money, if you don’t want to loose out on sales it’s the only way. Also you will get a chance to meet some local people in your area, and getting out can be good for you!
The Eight Reasons Why Salespeople Fail
The responsibility for ensuring that every member of the sales team is successful, lies entirely with management and below are the eight reasons why sales people fail.
In fact, I usually ask just three very straightforward questions, in order to identify why a salesperson is underachieving i.e.
Promoting Your Private Label at Industry Trade Shows
So everyone thought you were crazy when you announced 6 months ago that you were quitting your “real job” in hopes of chasing starting your own Private Label Clothing Line. Your house is a disaster, blank shirts and line sheets everywhere, your living room has been transformed into a makeshift production lab. You’ve bled and sweat, investing every last of ounce of time, effort and inevitably…your life savings. At last, you’re first sample line is complete and your line sheets are nothing short of spectacular. Congratulations! But wait…better take a deep breath as the real work has only begun. What next?
Lucky for you, Leisure Trends estimates that in 2004 surf and skate retailers sold $4.87 billion in goods. With those figures continuing to increase in 2005 you only need a sliver of the pie. Most importantly you need to place yourself in front of and meet the right people.
10 Things to Help Your Business When Sales Are Slow During the Holidays
Twiddling your thumbs and waiting for some business to come in? Why not use this downtime to set yourself up for greater success in the new year? Here are my 10 picks, but you don’t have to do them all. Even doing just one will get you another rung higher on your business ladder.
1. Evaluate your virtual team and make changes if necessary.