Archive for the ‘Business Planning’ Category

Every time I work with a business owner and am presented with a new situation, I often find myself thinking back to how I would handle that in the sports world.  You see, when I not running my business coaching practice during the day, in the evenings and on weekends you will find me on the soccer field.  I have the privilege of coaching in the highly competitive soccer programs at the Brandon Football Club.  I am passionate about the sport and passionate about watching the players challenge themselves to greater success.  Prior to coaching here locally at the club, I coached at other area clubs and with the USA Under 17 Men’s National team, and the story was the same.  The highly elite athletes pushed themselves to such thresholds of success and achieved.  Why would that be different in business?  Why would the coaching I provide them be any different than a business owner?

My sports background has been invaluable in business and in coaching. There are a lot of similarities between sports coaching and business coaching. Both are about looking for ways to do things better and more efficiently.  I like to think about coaching as bridging the gap to what you already know and where you should be performing.  Having a second opinion or strategy from a coach might be the difference where you are currently operating at and where you should be.

The success on the soccer fields with my teams is really helping me develop other business owners through coaching.  I often work with people who just got into business but have no idea what is involved in running it. We work through a business plan, growth strategies, and implementation. Typically, within three months, the business goes from losing money to making a very good bottom line profit.  Coaching is not about fixing businesses, it’s all about working with businesses to find and implement solutions while writing the systems for long term success.  When we coach clients, we use a strong process and strategies to help the business owners get change in their organization by answering their own questions.

You need to remember most people are in business because it’s something they’ve always wanted but now they’re working in it, not on it, and have no idea how to pull up. It’s important to have fun when you’re in business – so it’s supporting a lifestyle and is a choice.  Business owners generally have a high emotional attachment to their business. Their two main passions tend to be their family and their business, in that order. Often when we’re dealing with a business owner, a lot of their focus in the business is to take care of their family; a lot may have taken large loans or borrowed against their home. It’s a space we have to be very aware of when coaching.

Most businesses we speak with seeking coaching assistance want to know how they can maintain and improve their margins through this recessionary environment.  There is so much great business here in the Tampa area and those are the success stories we are hearing from our clients through coaching. With the recession, people are re-evaluating their business models and considering how they might change to become more profitable.

If I can continue to remember my roots to the sports world and install the passion that my athletes have into business owners into their business, then we have a great formula for success.  This success does not only help the business or the owners, but we all win because we are building an economy that is thriving and succeeding together.

Most business owners and CEO’s start the week looking at the calendar or by hosting a team meeting to have a look at what their week’s are going to look at.  As I conduct my team meetings on Monday morning I often ask myself and that of my team, what are you going to do this week that will leave you memorable?  You know how it goes, have you ever attended a networking event, collected a bunch business cards, and when you go through them the next day, you can’t remember who many of them are?  Or try to think of someone you met and had a conversation with, but you can’t remember their name or their business to look them up?  How would you feel it that is what is happening to you?  Well, I don’t want to be one of those that other people can’t remember and I’m certain that you do not want to be either.  It’s great to pass out business cards, but if people don’t remember you well, they probably won’t be calling you to follow up and they certainly won’t keep you in mind for their future needs or possible referrals.

So here are some ways that my team and I share with each other on how to make each other memorable (in a good way) when meeting other people face to face courtesy Scott Allen.  Scott is a master networking and regular contributor to about.com and The Wall Street Journal.

Be distinctive.

A brightly-colored, hand-painted tie, an unusual necklace or other jewelry, a good (but not overpowering) cologne, even just impeccable grooming can all help you stand out in a good way. It’s not that you want to be remembered and identified for that, but anything that helps people separate you from the crowd helps them remember the rest of you. You don’t have to be outlandish, although some people work that quite well. Just don’t blend in completely with the crowd.  I was working with a client and regularly dressed professional in slack and a nice polo shirt.  By changing him into a shirt and tie for this industry made all the difference and people know he stands out now.

Be fully present.

Be fully engaged and fully aware of the people you interact with. You can break this down into smaller, somewhat mechanical pieces like listen well, respond promptly, maintain eye contact, etc.  If you are truly present in the moment, those things will happen naturally. Many people only seem to be “half there”, so being fully engaged helps you stand out.

Ask thought-provoking questions.

Networking expert Bob Burg has some good suggested questions in his book Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts into Sales, such as “How did you get started?” or “What do you enjoy most about what you do?” But the very best questions can’t be communicated in a book because they’re specific to the person you’re interacting with and will arise in response to your initial conversation. By being fully present, this will flow naturally. As Dale Carnegie suggested, you must “take a genuine interest in other people”.

Reinforce your keywords.

I like this one, people aren’t going to remember long descriptions of what you do, or likely even that 30-second intro that many experts teach you to make. People will at best remember a few key things about you like, your name, your company name, your business/industry (in three words or less), your product, and your location.

What you want to do is find ways to unobtrusively increase the occurrence of these things in your conversation. For example, is there some kind of story behind your name? Have it ready to use if there’s an opportunity. Does your business have an unusual name? What’s the story behind it, what does it mean? Refer to your place of business when telling an incident that occurred (“I was driving down 17th Street leaving my store, when…”).

Anything you say that reinforces one of the five items above helps make you more memorable. And if they can remember just three of them, “Joe the barber from Soho” or “Maria the translator who wrote ‘Spanish in Six Weeks’” you’re doing great.

Contribute to the group conversation.

Don’t hog it, and don’t say just anything in order to say something publicly, but saying one really smart thing at your table or in front of the whole group will make you much more memorable than half an hour of semi-conscious small talk. Create value for others and you create value for yourself.

When we look at brand strategy in marketing, one of the most important concepts is that a brand is not just a memorable name or logo, it’s an experience. A great brand communicates values and emotions that get called to mind whenever someone thinks of the name or logo.

Here we’re talking about your personal brand. Remember that you are your business. The impression that you make on people is the impression they will have of your business, so make it good and make it memorable.

A CRM solution has every reason to be used by business organizations as it can help businesses to radically improve the way they process and managed customer needs.  With regards to the use of a CRM solution, a suspect is a contact who is yet to express interests in business offerings, but are likely to be in need for a similar product or service offering. CRM solutions from websites like Car Research can shorten and augment suspect customer profiling by allowing businesses to be more precisely in uncovering trends, patterns, and common features among their customer base. Once a suspect profile has been created, CRM solutions can make it simpler to target business contacts for definite promotions by allowing contacts segmentation based on age, gender, disposable income level, geography, and any other characteristics.

CRM solutions facilitate marketing to pass or allocate a lead directly to a sales delegate. It will also help sales people to efficiently manage all aspects of the prospective deals as they move closer to closing. For instance, activities on phone calls and meetings can be tracked, associated documentation such as quotes and request for proposals can be stored and a probability of close and potential deal worthiness can be easily estimated for pipeline and forecasting purposes.  Solutions at Car Research are capable meeting all these requirements such that your business can meet and even exceeding your customer expectations.

Many CRM solutions can help in lead capture as they are can be tightly integrated with websites and email distribution systems. That means surveys, form completions, click-through, and other response mechanisms are dynamically captured, and related information can be made immediately available to sales and marketing people. With intelligent routing capabilities of a CRM from Car Research, this means follow-up communication can be mechanically triggered, or leads can be dynamically forwarded to specific sales representatives basing on pre-defined business rules.

Customer relationship management tools also help companies to track initial and add-on purchases and allow businesses to provide any post-sale service and support issues that may arise. Furthermore, as customers become progressively more indecisive and loyalty continues to nose-dive, CRM solutions will provide businesses with an insight they need in provision of world-class customer support, deliver value-added services and maintain existing business Reporting is another powerful CRM facet, as it has the ability to extract data at will and generation of reports gives practical snapshot of what is going on in business at any given time. Reports are important in convening and conveying information to those individuals who may not have access to the CRM or does not use it regularly.

As you know the economy is sluggish the last couple of years.  As business owners, we share the responsibility with local government to help with economic development and net job creation.  Being in this economy has been very difficult for many of us, but together through our efforts at the small business level, I believe we can recover and be in a good situation.

Starting in 2004 and through the years in working with business owners and research we at Estrada Strategies have done on entrepreneurship and business development, we have found that statistically 80% of businesses that where founded every year fail within three years.  To me, that’s a horrific statistic because every time a business is founded it represents the hopes, dreams, and vision of a family.  To know they are being found and going out of business so quickly means the dreams of that person as fading quickly.  To add to that, if you look at the statistics year over year going back to 1990, 100% net new private sector jobs growth occurs in the business with an employment force less than 50 workers.  What that means is the big businesses add new employees but they do not have new net job growth.  They just turn over jobs, people come in, people go out, etc.  If you take out the large businesses that have over 50 employees and look at net job growth, what you discover is that the only sector that has been adding jobs over this time period is small business and government.

How does this relate to us today as small business owners? In 2004, we said 80% of small businesses fail, if you look at those same numbers in 2010, with the change in economy, the trend in the last three years is 90% are failing within two years.  The interesting thing about this is while the economy has lost many jobs and unemployment up so high, what it does is it stimulates new business development.  When people get out of work, they look for new ways to make money and one of those is opening a new business.  We have a lot of business development and creation going now here but unfortunately a lot of those businesses are going into business and out of business just as quickly, creating a further negative situation.

I believe there are two key issues that take place that has lead to this current downturn in economic development. If you take the big statistic, 80% of small businesses fail in the first three years; the small business administration has been tracking it for a long time.  It includes home based businesses that you may not call a business in the first place, those are the home based ones where the wife is trying to make extra money, garage based business, etc.  About 50% of businesses make this up.  If you take those out of the equation, there are two reasons why small businesses fail.

1.  They start with insufficient capital.  They never had enough money to begin with in the first place.  People start businesses and never realize how much cash they needed to begin in the first place.
2. The second reason why small businesses fail is the business owner didn’t know how to do the right thing at the right time.  These are typically the business owners that leave a great job because they got tired of working for someone else and had no idea of all the things small businesses need to know.  Most are great at their trade, but had no idea how to sell, market, keep books, etc.

As the economy begins to recover, it is our responsibility to not become one of these two statistics.  A good cash flow plan with a financial advisor and securing the right capital will help sustain long term business growth.  You will also want to look into continued education and training to make sure you are learning all the things that go into business ownership and keeping up with the trends.  With these two efforts, you will be doing your job as business owner in economic development and stimulating new net job growth.

Everyone knows that online presence is becoming more and more important, but not everyone knows where to begin.  This is one area of my business that I have been thinking a lot of lately as I want to lead generate more without me having to pound the pavement to do it.  With so many different options to choose, choosing the right strategy is very important.  Perhaps an investment in pay-per-click may be the way to go or a social media campaign.  Should I optimize my site so that it appears towards the top of Google for free?  I think I probably should do all three but where do I start.    It gets even harder when every person I speak to says something different.  I know I need to keep writing my blog, sending my Tweets and use Facebook, but how often and with what content?  So I did some reading and research and here are some things that I found, most should work well for you.

Blogs within a website or linked to your website through an outside blog site like Google’s Blogger are pretty powerful.  They need to be written in informal and conversational in tone.  Think of it has having a conversation with your keyboard; say to it what you would be telling someone in person.  Blogs are great because it adds a more casual element to your website.  It helps put your face to the website.  The down side is blogs do not rank high on search engines except if you are talking about sports and politics and not everyone can sit in front of a computer and start writing.  You need to have a sense of creativity.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is when you market your website so that it ranks high on search engines.  Search engines typically have two places where your website can be listed; the organic listing are the ones that run down the center of the page below or to the left of the paid links.  The good thing about SEO is almost everyone that clicks on a link from a search engine does it from the free list and it works with every website.  They are usually looked as more trusted and convert to higher site visits than paid links.  It takes a long time and a lot of work to get a website optimized.  There are many strategies to take into account to optimize your website.

Using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social sites are up and coming and a great place for presence online.  The thing to remember with social media is that it is like networking online, a lot more passive and no selling.  You are adding credibility and establishing yourself as the expert in your field.  It helps you connect with your existing users and also has the ability to run advertisements on the social media sites which can be very targeted.  It may be hard to generate new business quickly from social media, but if you speak about things that users find useful or can attach to, it can be very beneficial.

Pay-per-click (PPC) are the sponsored links usually in yellow on the top and right hand side of search engines. Unlike social media, they can deliver traffic quickly, but only 20-30 percent of people click on PPC links.  The huge benefit of PPC is it offers huge control of managing your campaign because your have control of lots of specifics like geography and demographics.  The down side of PPC is that it’s probably the most expensive method for online presence.  You need a company to manage a budget to and spend wisely.  You have to focus on your keywords that will keep the costs low.

Make sure you focus your efforts on the ones that return the highest return on investment.  There are also other forms of online presence but the ones talked about here are the most common and some of the easiest to achieve.

As business owner and CEO, there is no doubt you know that it’s your responsibility to insure that everybody throughout your organization clearly understands the vision of the company, its values, and the mission of the organization. It never fails that every time I speak to business owners that haven’t grown or have high employee turnover, they either don’t have one or if they do, it’s not clearly communicated.

The vision in its simple form is the ability to see beyond what is to what could be.  The essence of all leadership begins with vision.  As business owner, you must consciously craft and communicate your vision.  You want to create a vision that others will say, “we want to do that too.”  The power in the vision statement is the back story that comes behind it.  For example, Coca Cola’s vision statement is Coke, within an arms reach of every human on the planet.  Why is that Coca Cola’s vision statement?  It was crafted in the mid 1970’s when Coke was dominating the United States.  They had clear market share and their top executives and managers had become stagnant.  They needed to regroup and develop a new vision that would motivate them and their employees for more.  As we know, today, Coke is a global leader and is really close to being within an arms reach of everyone.  You see, your vision is the magnet that pulls people towards a seemingly unattainable goal.  Without vision and only having goals that employees need to accomplish, you will get resistance, discontent, unmotivated employees and loss of business.  They will only push back instead of working towards that vision with you.

So here’s a tip: On a regular basis, once a week ideally, once a month if necessary, but at minimum once a quarter, take some time and push out a message to all of your employees. You can use email, a newsletter, or maybe even a recorded voice message. Use that message to reset the scales. Re-communicate the vision of the organization. If possible communicate something that the company has done recently to move closer to that vision. Review your mission and communicate a strategic initiative that was accomplished that gets the company closer to serving that mission. When you do send this message, be sure to let people know how they can contribute to living the vision and accomplishing the mission.

When companies begin to grow,at times, the technology that is needed to support it falls behind. As our business begins to grow, thinking of purchasing servers and expensive hardware scares me (as others). The IT world is abuzz with talk about cloud computing. Companies are turning to this technoloy to help cut expenditures and extend their computing resources, so it got me thinking about it and what I should do as we grow. Many small business can take advantage of cloud computing, accessing enterprise-grade software that would otherwise be too expensive and too complex for their IT departments.

Cloud computing can mean a lot of things, but essentially, it refers to any service in which data is stored in a remote virtual environment instead of on your business’ premises. Generally, these services are subscription-based, and may be billed on a monthly basis, with rates dependent on the amount of data you’re storing remotely, or in “the cloud.” Here are a few ways that you might use cloud computing for your company.

Document storage. Have you ever used a service that allows you to save, edit, and modify files that are stored online? Then you’ve used a cloud computing service. Many cloud document storage services allow you to store and access Word files, PDFs, audio files, spreadsheets, and other data through your Internet connection, so you can access your files from any computer as long as you can get online. A typical provider allows up to one gigabyte of free storage per account; if your business needs more space, it can be purchased on a per-unit basis.

Website hosting. Instead of purchasing a physical server to host your website, many users have now switched to “cloud hosting,” which operates on one or more connected servers online. This means that you can quickly scale up or down if your bandwidth needs increase or decrease. It’s also far more cost-effective than a dedicated server, as you only need to pay for the amount of computing power you’re using, instead of paying the full cost of running an entire server. On the downside, because you are not physically in control of your data storage, there are some security risks as far as cloud hosting is concerned. Nonetheless, it’s a great option for many small businesses.

Accounting and billing. If you and your employees need to keep track of your hours, expenses, and invoices, one way to make sure everything’s in order is to use an accounting system that’s hosted in the cloud, so users can access the service from anywhere. Many accounting services even offer programs that let you track your time as you are working, and monitor how timely your clients are with paying your invoices.

Project management. If you’re managing a team of workers who frequently need to upload files for feedback and editing, it makes a lot of sense to switch from an internal project management system to one that’s hosted online. This is particularly useful if you have employees who work remotely or travel for business, or if you’re managing a project that involves freelance contractors. In addition to file sharing, such systems can be used to send messages within a group, and to set up milestones and email reminders.

When it comes to size, small businesses may be small, but they also need to accomplish some of the same things that big businesses do. Technology is an important factor in helping businesses succeed. Identifying your business’s information technology needs and requirements typically involves evaluating your IT services or ways you plan to expose your business to the World Wide Web.  It supplies a more efficient platform that can provide automation, increased accessibility to customers and increased productivity As you attempt to align your IT infrastructure model with your business strategies, identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement. Developing a plan for growth and a summary report of your findings while validating your recommendations helps ensure that future your IT investments meet your organization’s business needs effectively. On an ongoing basis, clearly define any IT project’s vision and scope before you gather requirements, make purchases or begin development.

Including a these must-have technologies in the start-up costs is not only a good investment but also a step in the right direction.

Telephony

Telephone communications are essential to running businesses, especially if you or your clients cannot meet in person. A phone allows you to interact with clients and vendors regularly. Phone communications can be through a regular land line, VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), cable line or wireless. A telephone is also usually the fastest way to communicate to get a response.

Computers and Peripherals

A small business should have computers that do more than just jot down notes or write down business letters and reports. They should connect small businesses to the Internet. If you want your business to succeed in this technologically-advanced era, it needs a website. Giving your business an Internet presence allows you to reach more customers than if you were only to advertise through the local papers or yellow pages.

Aside from connecting to the Internet, computers help small businesses communicate via email, write correspondences and contracts, create presentation slides and perform administrative tasks such as creating sales logs and billing invoices. Along with computers are basic peripherals that are very useful in running a small business: printers, scanners, fax machines and copiers.

Mobile Devices

Your business will grow faster if you do not stay tied to your desk. There will be times that you have to leave your desk and meet people to sell your products or offer services. Mobile devices allow you to take your business with you wherever you go. Laptops, hand-held devices and smartphones allow you to connect to the Internet, make phone calls, read or send emails and perform other tasks away from your desk. Mobile devices let you stay in touch while on the road.

Software

A good hardware is not enough without good software. Some of the most widely used software that small businesses need include accounting, tax preparations, inventory, calendar or appointment scheduler, and payroll. These software items are essential in fulfilling your business’ day-to-day tasks.

IT Support

IT professionals can help maintain your equipment, which includes computers, servers and printers, by performing periodic checks and tune up. They will also be responsible for performing regular backup of your data, which is very important, especially if you accidentally delete files or if the computer crashes and your files disappear. Backing up files will help you restore lost files. Some IT companies perform backups remotely, wherein they will backup your computer systems from their office using remote-backup software.

IT professionals are also responsible for updating your computers with the latest patches and anti-virus software to prevent viruses. They can also help install a firewall to prevent hackers from accessing and stealing valuable information. They will keep your network functioning properly to eliminate network lag and downtime so that your company’s productivity remains high.

In this lagging economy, with layoffs looming in the horizon, it’s not that surprising that team morale is low. If your employees are not working as a team, or have a low morale, it follows that your productivity will be low as well. While sitting in our CEO club last week, we had a great discussion centered about coaching employees and the relationship between employees.  It got me thinking about ways that I needed to view my staff as a team and not employees.  I’m the head coach and they are my team on the field.

I looked up the definition of teamwork to better help me understand how to wrap my arms around this concept that my staff is more than employees, but teammates and found this great definition.

Teamwork, Work done by several associates, with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole.

It that defines the way production is currently operating in your business, your team is on the right track. But if your team is a loosely organized group of individuals who get together once in a blue moon, you have some work to do. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to turn your staff into a high-functioning team. Here are some tips to turn your employees into a team at the office. Not only will your work output increase, but your employees will be happier to come to work each day.  As a business owner, it is your job to build a successful team.

1. Create Opportunities for People to Get Together to Tackle an Issue

This is not something you’ll have to invent, according to Kathleen Allen, senior fellow at the University of Maryland’s Burns Academy of Leadership and president of Allen Associates. “In my experience, these issues will pop up on a weekly basis,” she says. During these crunch times, a leader “needs to remind people what they’re together to do.” A time line is usually critical to success, she notes. The more opportunities people have to work together, the more likely it is they will begin to function as a close-knit team.

2. Mine the Learning from These Group Experiences

If handled well, an intense group effort can be the bridge that brings a team to an entirely new way of working together. Too often, though, after a short project during which people have worked closely together, the office drifts apart again. According to Allen, that is when the work really begins.

The first thing a leader should do is celebrate the work that has been accomplished and congratulate the team on a job well done. “It’s important to bring the team back to reflect on how it felt to work closely together,” Allen says. Leaders can expect some resistance to this. “People are probably going to say they can’t imagine working together this way all the time and getting their other work done. And there will probably be a perception that people will have to give up autonomy.”

The task is to convince employees of the excitement of teamwork.  “In a shared model, everyone on the team initiates things, rather than waiting to be told what to do by the leader,” Allen says. “They have a part in creating the values and the vision of the organization.” As for the perception that teamwork will lead to a heavier workload, Allen says the opposite often proves to be true. “When nobody’s talking to each other, there’s a lot of duplication.”

3. Give the Process Time — Lots of It

This is where many well-meaning business owners go wrong. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is an effective team. “So often, I get a call from a CEO who says, ‘We need to do team building this Saturday at 4,’” says Jim Jose, an organizational effectiveness strategist and leadership coach based in Tucson. “But team building isn’t an event; it’s a process.” It’s easy for a group of people to pull together for a few weeks and create what he calls a “rah-rah” atmosphere, but that doesn’t make a group a team.

Perhaps the biggest reason this process takes time is that people who have spent their careers simply following orders are task-oriented, not adjusting easily to the more process-oriented nature of working on a team. Also, they may regard the process of working on a team as too touchy-feely. The key is to help employees understand that teamwork isn’t about being nice; it’s about smart business. A team atmosphere calls on everyone, not just the leader to generate ideas, initiate projects and produce top-notch work.

“This is the classic ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,’” says Zachary Green, senior scholar at the University of Maryland’s Burns Academy of Leadership. “We know organizations that are able to align the visions [of their employees] are smarter, more effective, more efficient and, most importantly, more creative.”

Sometimes sales go wrong or we have a hard time closing sales.  Often times when they do, we blame someone else.  We use excuses like “He wouldn’t return my call” or “he said my price was too high.”  We often tend to blame anything or anybody, but fail to look at the systems your business has in place for a sales process.

We all believe in our business, our product, yourself and our ability to differentiate ourselves from the competition and in your heart you most believe the customer is better off having purchased from you.

Attitude will help you prevail or prevent you from winning.  Attitude also depends on your state of mind.  Believing you will win stems from your positive attitude.  If your enthusiasm is natural, it will be perceived as sincere and will become contagious.  Transfer your enthusiasm, your attitude and your belief in the form of a system as these elements will determine sales outcome well beyond your expectations.

I found these tips while doing some self training on sales from Jeffrey Gitmore, author of The Little Red Book of Selling.  I believe they can help you define your sales system and process.

1. The right prospect.  Someone you met at a networking event, someone you connected with on LinkedIn, someone who connected with you, a referral.  Not a cold call.  Cold calls are wrong.

2. The right strategy.  Create questions that engage the prospect about them, that also solicit information to help you.  Create a question based strategy, not a statement based one.

3. The right preparation.  Find facts that will help you understand the prospects present situation.  All these will lead to questions, ideas, and a customized presentation, not just a brochure and your pitch.

4. The right approach.  Approaches can always be awkward unless there’s already some kind of introduction or previous dialog.  Stay relaxed, build rapport, find things in common, then start your presentation.

5. The right communication.  Your presentation skills, the compelling message and your unspoken (but obvious) attitude and enthusiasm create a buying atmosphere.

6. The right message.  Prospects want to know how they can succeed, how they can win and how they can profit from owning what you sell.  Make them certain that what you sell helps them.

7.  The right value.  Be aware that value is what a customer perceives, not simply what you sell

8.  The right motive.  Unless you uncover your prospects motive to buy, you’ll be stuck in selling mode.  People do not like to be sold, but they love to buy.  Once you understand this, you will exert your effort trying to uncover buying motives rather than making a bunch of statements that fall on deaf ears.

9.  The right urgency.  Once you have uncovered your prospects motive to buy, you automatically reveal their need to own and the timeframe in which that must take place

10.  The right fit.  Fit is defined as the unspoken comfort that a prospect feels as they are thinking about owning what you sell.  The more comfortable you are with your product or service, the more, the more likely you are to move forward.

11. The right relationship.  If you are just trying to make a sale, you may be successful in the short run.  But then you have to go out and hunt for another.  The right relationship is value based, long-term oriented, and has a possibility of a referral and a reorder as a reward.

Do the right thing, if you leave out old world tactics, sales manipulation, and aiming to close, you’ll be on the right track and so will anybody on your team.  If you have done the right thing, a testimonial will follow, a referral can follow, and repeat business will follow.  Those elements are your measuring stick and report card.