I received an email from a Business & Coaching Consultant I know in Australia, his name is Peter Rowe and his company is called Profitune. Oh, stop by and visit with him, there is a wealth of great information at his website… tell him I said G’day..

In fact check out his August Newsletter it has a great article on “Time Management for Sales People.”

A little background, I lived and worked in Australia for over 16 years as a Business & Training Consultant. Peter Rowe is helping a very close friend of mine Alan Clare, get his Organic Wine Distribution Company up and running smoothly in Australia.

So, when Peter sent this email to me, with the Subject Line: Positive actions cause a ripple effect, I opened it straight away…

I guess I read the line more as “What goes around Comes Around” and ties in very closely to a past CRM Tip I sent out called the  “The Effect of the Power of Giving on your Business”

Here is what Peter wrote and I would like to share his words with you now, as food for thought… Also a big thank you to Peter for providing the “Seed for This CRM Tip” as the Aussie’s say… “Good on you, Mate!”

“Hi Kevin ,

A few months ago we provided some help when it was asked and considered the case closed. However, last month I was on the receiving end when someone whom we’d helped referred his best friend – in Northern Ireland – to me as a potential coaching client!

That kindness created a slightly magical journey for me. I’ve begun coaching with his best friend and the incident left me with a few pearls that I’d like to share with you.

1. Positive actions tend to provoke others. We did a favour and it was immediately returned to the benefit of two other people – and the ripple probably hasn’t stopped yet!
   
2. Referrals save time because the referrer has already perceived a match between the needs and capabilities of two parties and so the likelihood of a positive outcome for all is high.
   
3. Technology has dissolved the geographical boundaries for many businesses – and will progressively dissolve ideological boundaries for us all. (Skype Video helped my client & I to get a feel for our compatibility that was sufficient to commit to coaching together.)
   
4. Distance is no bar when it comes to liking someone you’ve yet to meet in the flesh.

Regards

Peter…”

What Peter has to say makes a lot of sense…. we are at the front end of what I call the “Creation Society”… a “Transition” from the “Knowledge Society” a term coined by Peter Drucker. (The Creation of New Ideas, Products and more importantly… Creating New Way’s of doing Business)..

We must turn Knowledge (Knowledge Society) into something of Value, in short we MUST CREATE Something with that Knowledge… by creating something new… in new ways…. we are becoming more than Entrepreneurs…. we are evolving into what I call “Creatreprenuers”..

Our Template for these Creations is “the Global Social Network.”… making as many quality connections as possible.

Literally, what we send out can come back in many astounding ways… so the choice is ours… TO CREATE VALUE or not to create value… As I outlined in the “Power of Giving” CRM Tip…. We can make a difference… let’s make it a Positive Difference.

One of our tools in managing these connection is through effective Customer Relationship Management. Whatever tools you use…. you must use them… an old adage… not sure where it originated but it says…. “If you don’t use it, you loose it”

This is very true with business relationships…. actually with any relationship..

Just something to think about….

One last observation…

We tend to do relate with people we like…. and we tend to attract people that share common values as we do…. in effect people that are like us… This holds very true in Business….

Remember to visit Peter Rowe at his website… Profitune…. and tell him I said Hello… O.K.?

Customer or Profit? A Case for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

In practically everything I do, I’m a customer, and I expect the businesses I patronize to put me first. But my expectations often don’t stand up against all the financial reasons the companies have for doing things other than the way that’s best for me. And I understand that.

I came across an article this week written by Alison Bond, and she makes a compelling arguments for how doing things that are right for your customers, does not have to be different from doing what’s good for your bottom line.

Alison Bond,is a director of The Halo Works Ltd., is the author, with Merlin Stone, of Direct Hit (Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, 1995), The Definitive Guide to Direct and Interactive Marketing (Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, 2003) and Consumer Insight (Kogan Page Ltd., 2004). She is also visiting fellow at CSEM, a partner of Brunel University.

Bond builds her argument on the difference between transactional metrics and customer-aligned metrics. Morrison tells how customer feedback can make your business more efficient. And Johnston illustrates how you can use customizable software to improve the service you give your customers and build you business.

At the end of the day you must be able to measure key aspects of your business to be able to make the correct business decisions.

One of the first mentors I had when I got into business was a Quality Assurance Guru, his name was W.Edwards Deming. Dr. Deming was hired as a consultant by 3M and I had the privilege to work with and learn from this Great Business Leader.  (Here is the link to learn more about Dr. Deming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming)

Well, one of the things I remember Dr. Deming preaching, was if you can’t measure it you can’t change it.  This is one of the first things I tell businesses that contact me for help in their business, and one of the reasons I am such a proponent of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and products that help make this function almost effortless.

This article below helps point out the importance of tracking your customer every step of the way.

I hope you enjoy the reprint of this great article by Alison Bond

Have the Customer at the Heart of What You Do and Your Business Will Benefit

By Alison Bond, The Halo Works  The Halo Works Ltd.

An organization goes in the direction of its measures, or at least it tries to. That is why it has measures. So for example, if an organization has a target to make a profit, the people in that part of the organization will shape themselves around the need to make that profit. If everyone in the company is focused on that profit target, that will be the staff’s primary concern.

However, it often doesn’t work like that. The extreme cases like Enron are classic examples of a target driving behavior in a negative way, but there are plenty more.

Say you are a creative business and hire a bunch of creative people to service your creative hungry clients. You, then, focus your creative people on profit. What effect does that have on their creativity? Does it make them more creative, or does it divert their attention away from the creative process and end up giving them creator’s block? What has this got to do with giving the customers want they want?

‘Company Y expands to hit its target of 50 vans but, sadly, runs out of money.’

We have worked in this area for many years, and we know that an organization that sets transactional targets such as how quickly representatives answer the phone or how many sales calls agents make are more likely to end up busy. Organizations follow their measures. But does being busy make your business better? We know from our work that busy is more likely to create a desire to “work the system,” which can create a climate that contributes to a move away from the customers. What we have found—and this is not rocket science—is that if an organization measures benefits and focuses on those, it will end up with a positive organization. A positive organization will want to focus on the customer because there is no benefit not to. But positive benefits include:

• Attracting and keeping the best people. There are not too many customers, or staff for that matter who are committed to making your company rich, but people do like to feel that they have made a difference.
• Attracting and keeping the best customers. People buy benefits. Customers are keen to realize the benefits they expected to gain from your product or service in a tangible way.
• Removing the temptation to match numbers with expectations. This eliminates one of the biggest drivers to contravene normal corporate governance rules and focus away from the customer.
• The organization will have a real and positive reason to sustain itself. This is because the reason for existing will be more than just profit. It will be a about doing things that help the customers and the staff members be the best they can be. This always benefits the customer.

Which company is going to be the most successful? One in which everyone is focused on profit? Or one where people are focused on the benefits the business provides? All our work has shown that the profitable businesses are the ones who align themselves behind the benefits they sell. Yes, they measure profits, but the main focus is on an alignment behind the core business they operate. Employees stay, and the customers are loyal.

A question we often are asked is how come Company X is doing so well while Company Y is struggling. Company Y appears to be working hard. You see its advertising or its vans driving around. But suddenly it goes out of business. Was it just unlucky? Can any organization just go bust? The good news is that it is not bad luck that forces companies out of business. It is a devotion to the wrong things, and being too successful in following those things.

Company Y might have set itself a target for growth, something like 50 vans on the road by the end of the next financial year. Company executives will, then, do everything it can to hit their target, including borrowing money, taking on slightly unprofitable contracts and not always paying attention to the service the company is providing. They are focused on a volume business, not a quality one.

Their customers, though, want something different. They do not care how many vans the company has. They want their parcels on time and delivered by people they trust. This is what Company X does so well. Company X focuses on quality, not just in its mission statement but also by what it measures. Company X executives think 50 vans would be nice, but the firm has only 32 really reliable drivers. So what is the point of 50 vans? A reliable driver delivers a reliable service. So Company X stays smaller and makes very good profits, and Company Y expands to hit its target of 50 vans but, sadly, runs out of money and has to close its doors.

Company X takes on 20 of Company Y’s drivers, 18 of whom prove to be very reliable. It gets some of Company Y’s customers, too, and has its best-ever profits. It was not luck. Company X is run by a team of people who know exactly what their customers want and the characteristics of those who can deliver what their customers want. They measure those things and stick with them. It makes Company X successful.

Being customer-focused allows Company X to do the “right” things for the customer. It is much easier to do the right thing when the organization is aligned behind the benefits that the organization sells and when employees are encouraged to provide those benefits and are measured on that. Ultimately, being customer focused is good for business. It may not meet a short-term target for mega-growth, but long term, clearly aligned customer focus will make organizations successful in a way that swift forays into the World of a Fast Buck will not.

To help put a system in place to keep track of your metrics.. < strong>Trial for 30 days Infusionsoft.

Some of the feed back I have been receiving indicates that people are not always receiving my CRM Tips that I send out and because of this feed-back I have archived the past CRM Tips for easy access here Past KJ Barrett CRM Tips Archive

I have also been asked to post the CRM Tips here on my blog…. so I have also done this… This allows people to make comments and provide more direct feed back on these CRM Tips.

Thank you all for your feed back and enjoy the latest CRM Tips from KJ Barrett & Associates…

Did you know that your customers and prospects are being bombarded by over 3,000 marketing messages a day? That’s a lot of messages. And, in order to avoid information overload, they’ve trained their minds to completely ignore those messages.

Once you discover the steps to leading your customer to a sale…you can easily overcome those marketing filters.

I receive a lot of information via email from a lot of people. I relay on the internet and email for valuable information. I have people that I know and trust that send me great information that I can pass on with my own slant on the topic.

How do people get their messages to me? Well it boils down to these four easy steps, and they have followed these steps. Now, here are the steps to gently nudge your prospects towards a purchase decisions… exactly what others have done for me.

Step 1- Get to know them. When you know a lot about your prospect’s, your messages become much more targeted. Which gets your prospects attention. And, your prospects will feel as though you truly care about them. Keep in mind people do not like to be sold, but they love to buy. Create rapport with your prospects.

Step 2- Follow up consistently. When you consistently and effectively follow up with your prospects, your message will eventually sink in. In a previous CRM Tip, referred to this as “We can not control when people will buy, we cannot and should not force them to buy… our responsibility is to be there when they do decide to make a buying decision, and that is through “Open, Regular, Quality Communications.”

The statistics show that most companies stop following up after four contacts, and most purchases take place after seven contacts. So our responsibility is to be around when our prospects do decide to buy.

Step 3- Offer your prospect value. Every marketing message out there is an attempt to get your prospects money. Imagine how you’ll stand out when your message does more than make a sell. It educates, engages, entertains and/or helps your prospect in some way. Value does not equate to the lowest price. Price is only one part of the Value Equation.

Step 4- Value your prospects. Once your prospect becomes your customer, don’t abandon them. They need the same attention you offered them as a prospect’s. Offer that same personal attention and they will become a raving fan! This is one of the most important and I am sorry to say the most overlooked step…. I call this step building a “Loyalty Ladder”….. and you will be surprised how many people they will send your way.

If you’ve been reading these messages consistently, this will sound very repetitive to you. However, these are fail proof methods for turning your prospects to customers and your customers to raving fans. And, that is worth a whole lot to your bottom line!

And CRM Strategies from Infusionsoft can help you automate the Sales and Marketing Process. “Working Less for More Sales and Profits!”

You can Now give Infusionsoft a trial run at no cost for 15 days….. and with the new pricing structure choose from three different versions to meet your business needs, with NO UPFRONT SET-UP COST (They have been waived)… From Basic to the Pro…. CRM implementation could not be easier and cost effective.

By Kevin J. Barrett

It is interesting!, that if there is anything that you want to get, or if there is anything you need in this life, then it will probably involve someone else’s help in getting it. This is true no matter who we are and what we do, It is particularly important if you are in “Sales”. No matter what you do, the ability to develop and maintain rapport with a large range of people with varying backgrounds will allow you to get what you want most of the time. Having rapport with someone will allow you to do most anything. In the sales process probably the most important skill to develop is the skill of “establishing rapport”.

The basis of rapport is that when people are like each other, they tend to like each other. We tend to associate and relate to people better when they are, similar to us. When people are not like each other, they tend to not like each other. A successful Sales professional needs, to he able to expand the range of people they will be able to relate to. It is important to remember that the “Sales Process”, is really the process of “communications”.

Each person is 100% responsible for their own communication, and the true meaning of communications is the response you get from that communication. Your response equals your meaning and all meaning iscontext (process or structure) dependent. This means that the words we use require context for meaning. (Alfred Korzyhski, General Semantics, 1933). If you are not getting the response you want, It is up to you to find a way of communicating what you want in a manner that will obtain the response you want. This means increase rapport. It is not the fault of the other person. This is one of the hardest concepts for people to accept. It is so much easier to blame the other person for not understanding.

When it comes to communications and establishing rapport it is important to remember that 93% of the meaning (response) in the communication process takes place on an unconscious level. Only 7% isbased on objective words or at a conscious level, while 38% is based on the tone of voice and 55% is based on physiology, which is by an large unconscious.(Robert Birdwistle, University of Pennsylvania,Kinesthetics and Communications. 1970).

Have you heard the saying; “Buyers are Liars”? I don’t believe Buyers are liars. I believe it is up to the Sales Professional to polish their communication skills and “sensory acuity” to obtain the responses they want, and to assist their clients in “Buying and Owning” what they want. Helping them achieve what they want. People do not like to be sold, but they love “Buying and Owning”. It is the “Sales Professional’s” responsibility to assist people in “Buying and Owning”.

What often happens in life is that we associate with people who are most like us. If people are not like us we move away from them. This can limit our life experiences. In sales, this can limit the number of prospects in which we can relate effectively with and in turn limit those where we can have successful sales outcomes. I believe that successful living is really Success: Full Living, and successful sales is reallySuccess: Full Sale.

One of our goals in life is to be able to achieve and have what we want. To do this it requires that we have the help and support of others. To gain the help and support of others we need to be able to establish rapport with them so that they want to willingly help us. The greater range of people we are able to relate with improves the scope in which we will be able to have Success: Full Living or as we say in sales,Success: Full Sales.

The following is a five step sales process that can quadruple your Success: Full Sales. It outlines a proactive approach that will enhance your ability to dynamically adjust and control the sales and communication process so that it is exactly matched to the client. Everyone is different and once we can determine the various strategies people use we can assist them in achieving what they want in their life. The following is based on an N.L.P. communications model. To learn more about these strategies and models contact Kevin Barrett at www.kjbarrettcrm.com .

1. Establish Rapport: Remember, people who are like each other tend to like each other. Match and Mirror
the other person, their:

• Physiology

• Tone of voice

• Representational system

• Breathing

• Key words

2. Ask Questions: The questions you ask are directly related to the business of the person who you are

interviewing. Talk their language. Ask questions in the language of their business.

• “For what purpose…..”

• Discover client’s internal representations (fear or pleasure, moving toward this or away from things,
etc), desired states.

• Meta Model

• Discover their internal strategies and anchor their needed to those states

• Discover Meta Programs and Values.

3. Find a Need: Establish need – establish value. No need? Stop here. Find another client. There are plenty
of clients to work with that have needs.

• Anchor it – Anchor it (Need)

• Conditional close

• Tag questions.

4. Link the their Need or their Value to your Product or Service:

• Conditional close (“Is it fair enough….)

• “What would happen if…

• “Compared to.. . .“ (Contrast Frame)

• Because “ I agree with you because….)

• Agreement Frame

• Fire Anchors that supports them

• Use strategies and language patterns

5. Close:Ask for the order. Chain anchors to:
Handle Objections

• If no: (go to #3)

• If yes: Future pace. Fire! The reassurance anchors. Get referrals

Resistance to your message almost always indicates lack of support. If that happens at any point, build more rapport. Remember there is no such thing as uncooperative buyers or clients, only inflexible sales people. In 1930 Norbert Weiner, in his book Cybernetics, came up with the Law of Requisite Variety, which means that the system/person with the most flexibility of behaviour will control the process or system. The Sales Professional with the most flexibility of behaviour will have the most Success: Full Sales.

This is a very effective outline in achieving Success:Full Sales.

And CRM Strategies from Infusionsoft can help you automate the Sales and Marketing Process. “Working Less for More Sales and Profits!”

You see…the easiest person to sell to is one you’ve sold to before. It’s someone who already trusts you, someone who’s already had a “Wow” experience with your company. Tony Alessandra called this creating “Moments of Magic” for your customers. Usually, it’s someone who is willing to give you a testimonial…if you ask for it. But, you have to ask for it!

Tony also said,  ”The very best time to ask for a testimony or a referral is when the sale is made.”

Here are 4 quickfire ways to build your store of testimonials like crazy:

• Use industry endorsements and/or respected experts
• Put together user groups
• Create a feedback form on your website
• Ask directly, and then help your clients write the testimonial

One of my favorite ways to get testimonials is a trick I learned from my friend, Clate Mask at Infusionsoft. When a customer tells you something great about your product or service, ask this golden question, “Can I quote you on that?” Then write up their quote, email it to them for their approval, and voila! You’ve got a great testimonial!

Why are testimonials so powerful? Because, what someone else says about you is much more believable than what you say about yourself. If you’re talking about your own business, you’re bound to say how good it is. Everyone expects it, and no one really believes it. But if someone else raves about your business…then it’s a whole different ball game.

So, if you don’t have testimonials…you need them fast!

Make no mistake… “free” is an extremely powerful word, but if you don’t know how to wield it with precision and skill, you’re in for a nasty surprise! It’s a little bit like the difference between a scalpel and a machete. Both are extremely sharp and powerful tools… but you must have the right skills to use them safely and effectively.

One of the best places to use the word “free’ in your marketing… is when you use it to offer your customers and prospects a free report.

So, what is a free report? A free report is exactly what it says: a free source of useful information you give your prospects. You see, you are an expert in your industry, and there are things you know that your contacts can certainly benefit from. Offering a free report is an excellent way to:

• Build your relationship with your customers and prospects
• Give your customers and prospects value
• Bring in leads (when you offer your free report as a download)
• Keep your name in front of your prospects
• Educate your prospects about your services

There is NO doubt about it: the value you get from giving a paper-and-ink report returns a value far out of proportion to its cost!

The advantage of giving away information is this: because you are the expert and because you’ve done your contacts a favor (by giving them something of value), they are going to feel comfortable with you and indebted to you. And, that will drive more sales!

Several months ago, you were sent an email about the difference between marketing and advertising. Hopefully you took that message to heart. After all,one of the greatest benefits of marketing is the ability to measure your efforts. And, for a business owner, this is a valuable ability.

You see, when you measure your marketing efforts… and then take the time to make the appropriate changes, you are going to see the results in the increased number of sales.

A few months ago I attended a seminar, where Jay Conrad Levinson (Father of Guerrilla Marketing) spoke, I was actually able to get some quality one-on-one time with him. One of the things that he stressed during his presentation, was“So many businesses STOP marketing when they do not see immediate results.”… “It takes a little bit of time to determine if the advertizing and marketing you are doing is working!!!!”

You will never know what is working with out MEASURING!!!!!

Early in my career I worked briefly learning from Dr. Deming, (Father of Total Quality Management and the primary reason of the Re-Birth of Japan in the early 50’s) He used this phrase and it has has stuck with me for many years…“If you can’t measure it, you can’t change it., If you don’t measure it, you will never change. Know what to measure and use it to change for the better.”

In fact, this last point is one of the primary reasons, people and businesses keep doing the same thing over and over again. They can’t measure the results they are getting back… Interesting.

So how can you measure your marketing efforts? Well, good tracking and measuring is going to take a combination of Internet know-how and automated, marketing systems. But, between the two, you can easily track and measure:

• Lead sources
• Email open rates
• Email opt-in rates
• Email links
• User interactions
• Promotion responses
• And, of course your resulting sales!

When you are able to SEE what is working, your marketing will become more specific, targeted, and successful. Even with a stellar marketing campaign, there is always room for improvement. Measuring your results gives you the chance to keep getting better, and bring in more and more sales.

Remember Dr. W. Edwards Deming words, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t change it., If you don’t measure it, you will never change. Know what to measure and use it to change for the better.”

Also remember Jay Conrad Levinson’s words, and I will paraphrase here, “Do what you are doing long enough to get good numbers to MEASURE….”

When uncertainty rules… marketing campaigns are nothing more than a shot in the dark! With the ability to measure, track, and tweak, you can become a marketing powerhouse and start adding more money to your bank account!

By Kevin Barrett
http://www.kjbarrettcrm.com

This is a very interesting topic…. Trillion’s of Dollars are spent a year on Sales Training… most of that training is focused for getting New Customers….

IIn effect, trying to find new Professional Sales Techniques to gain a “competitive advantage”.

It is also interesting that Customer Retention Programs are usually an after thought.

We advocate companies “Developing a Loyalty Ladder” customer base….. rather than a “Revolving Door” sales process. Customer Retention Programs are just as important…. I will even say they are more important than, new customer generation….

Once , customer retention is setup properly it cost very little to maintain, “Open Regular Communications” with your existing customer base and it frees up more resources to expand your sales into new areas…

I wrote an article awhile back on this topic and the full article can be downloaded at the link….

Matching Your Retention Strategies and Customer Life Cycle

It has some very interesting concepts….

I have used some references from Adam Ramshaw a Director at Genroe Pty Ltd… Adam and his company in Australia are experts in this field..

The graphic on Customer Life Cycle was provided with his permission.

I would recommend to everyone checking out there website…. Genroe and I have collaborated in the past and they are exceptionally good at what they do…. http://bit.ly/Y30OM

After reading the above article, my question is How many of the companies you work with or for that matter your own… company… really factor in to their Sales Plan the Product Life Cycle?… ( it has also been called the “Itch Cycle” of the product, when does the customer start needing the product again, and need to satisfy that desire?)

I believe that this is an important aspect of “Increasing Sales” and it is “Vital” for companies to factor these principles into their “Sales Programs” and “Strategic Plans”…

Every Sales Professional, must consistently explore ways to make regular contact with their “Loyalty Ladder”…..

Kevin Barrett
http://www.kjbarrett.com
http://www.kjbarrettcrm.com

A Professional Sales Technique that will make all the difference.

A friend of mine wrote a very interesting and informative article on “Networking”… One of the responses to her article was by a gentlemen that suggested that the “Motivation behind Networking” is also of importance.

This caused me to reflect on the impact and importance for a Sales Professional.

The prime “Motivator” for our networking and for that matter Sales, is very important. I relate this to a “Purpose”, when I am working with companies. A “Purpose”, is your reason for being….

That will most likely be different for each person on this net.

My over all “Purpose”, my reason for being…. Not just for myself but also my company, Is in just a few words:

“To make a positive difference”

That one statement carries through everything I do…. It is my prime “Mover”…..

When working with companies, over the last 20 years I have observed a refinement with companies to further define themselves as a company… this is particularly important for “Start-up” Companies.

We all have that a Business Plan is important, and we have all heard that we need to have a 5 year plan… we have heard words like, “Mission Statements”, “Value Statements”, “Vision” and “Action Plans”… extolled as the “ways and means” for achieving success in business.

In the late 90’s I was involved in a “Change Management” program with the largest insurance companies in Australia. The Program was called “Working from the Inside Out”….

One of the topic’s to be covered, was related to the perceived ineffectiveness of “Business Plans” … These companies had business plans, but they did not think that they were really of any value.

They had put in 5 year plans and because of revolutionary changes in that industry that took place, they found that everything changed… and they were left scrambling…..

A lot of finger pointing in many different directions… The real motivation behind this program, was that “Management wanted to change their employees, so that they would obtain different results.”

The true is you can not change the outside very much with out getting in deep and at the core of things. Hence, the name of the Program.. “Working from the Inside, Out”..

For this desired change to take place a change in “Management” had to take place….

We have all heard and seen the “Pyramid” style structure for “Organizational Charts”, CEO (one) at the Top and individual employees (Many) at the bottom…

What I did, is take that “Organizational Chart” and turn it upside down….

The CEO the (One) holding up the rest of the Organization… the response… Impossible, to achieve… even the mythical Atlas, was not able to hold the world on his shoulders….

My response was.. Let’s take a “Holistic” approach to the structure, much as Deming advocated, in his Total Quality Management program and empower the top the many to be able to function as an integrated unit. This would take much of the weight of the CEO and in effect permit “Atlas to hold up the world”.

You must remember, that this company was hemorrhaging. They were using words like, we have to kill the competition, we have cut out the dead beats, we are at war…. We must win at all cost. Their new “Marketing Campaign” was like a “War Campaign”.

My comment to one of the “Senior Executives” at the time was, and I really don’t remember where I had heard this before, but it came to me as an answer to his “Motivation” for wanting this “Change Management” program… I guess, in a nut shell, they wanted to “Train the Troops” to do battle.

My comment, “I recall seeing a young girl in a war torn setting. The village had just been bombed out, smoke was still, rising from the ruins and devastation. A reporter on the ground was asking this young girl, what she wanted to BE, when she grew up?”

This young child’s response?….. “I want to be alive”

I asked the “Senior Executive” if he wanted to “Do Battle” or have is “Company alive” and well…..

To be alive and well, they needed to change how they were doing things…

One of the reasons that their 5 year plan had not “Seen” the change in their industry coming was because they did not take a large enough View…… They were looking too locally and not Globally….

So… I changed the Business Planning Model, from their current planning model, which was:

Mission Statement
Goals
Strategies
Action Plan

We included several new areas and their planning process became:

Global View (or Purpose)
Values
Vision or Business Overview
Mission Statement
Goals
Strategies
Action Plan

We started at the top…. And worked down…….

We also found that there needed to be something to link this purpose or global view with the “Vision” and this is called the “Values”.

These Values and Beliefs are important for making change. It is just as important for companies. Once this was in alignment with our “Purpose”, things started to move forward, move forward at a fast pace.

There are many companies that are following this the Visionary Model, (which does not include the Global View or Purpose perspective)

James Collins and Jerry Porras, wrote a book called “Built to Last” were they studied Visionary Companies and tracked their success over the last 100 years. Exceptionally good reading…. These companies had different values, but they all had a “Strong Governing Value”, that impacted their actions and decisions… In effect… in influenced every step of the planning process.

I believe that when companies begin to take an even large starting view (Global Impact and Purpose) and link their “Values” with this model, we will see even greater success at all levels of business, large and small business ventures…

The statistics with companies failing in the first 3 years in business is not improving much….

Back to the original, point of this thread, related to “Networking”…. And integrating Christophe, suggestion that the “Why we network”, is of importance….

I would suggest we explore each of our individual “Purpose Statement” and it will provide some very interesting insights as to ourselves and our businesses…

Be careful however, it could change your “Success Ratio” significantly for the better.

How good are we at handling “Change”? and “What impact do we want to make?”

Kevin Barrett

http://www.kjbarrett.com