2011 Year-In-Review: Top Biz Coach Topics

 

Dec. 23, 2011

Here are 2011’s most-read Biz Coach columns:

In January, the most popular column was Human Resources – Slow Motion Gets You There Faster. It featured an analogy with a famous American composer, pianist, and actor: Hoagy Carmichael. Mr. Carmichael is credited with coining the phrase, “Slow motion gets you there faster.” In an age of rampant age discrimination, my thesis was that companies are shortsighted if they fail to hire mature employees.  Included were four strategies to hire seasoned workers.

Readers favored 21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management in February. The topic was prompted by news headlines from Seattle to New York, which are cause for some serious head slapping. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission continues to be inundated with worker complaints. In addition to the 21 strategies, there were explanations of the four ways new managers misfire in communication.

The biggest topic in March was 10 Strategies to Overcome Stress and Energize Your Career. Job stress causes absenteeism, lower productivity, weight gains, high legal and insurance costs, accidents and turnover. Stress costs business about $300 billion a year, according to the American Institute of Stress.

In April, the most popular topic was Study: Best Way to Get a Job Isn’t by Networking. It featured the survey results from Beyond.com and included job-hunting strategies.

The biggest topic in May was also the biggest in June: 25 Best Practices for Better Business Writing. If you want to accelerate your career or turbo-charge your business, one of your priorities should be good communication. A lack of writing skills will hold you back in the big leagues. Good writing is necessary in a myriad of ways, including letters, advertising copy and presentations.

In July, readers were interested in Do You Have A Toxic Relationship With Your Boss? This might be the 21st century with a cornucopia of management textbooks for bosses, but a significant number of employees still complain about their supervisors lacking in professionalism. That’s according to a study by Wayne Hochwarter, a professor in management at Florida State University.

The month of August proved to be a surprise. The No. 1 topic was actually a column I wrote on June 27, 2010 – Using Starbucks’ WIFI? Security Pro Issues Warning and Security Checklist. The WIFI offering by Starbucks has prompted a security warning and checklist from a go-to Internet security guru, Dr. Stan Stahl. (This was also No. 1 in 2010 making it the biggest topic since this portal was launched in July 2009.)

Readers in September preferred 7 Tips for a Young Professional to Become a CEO. For a professional to jump to the senior-management level in the 21st century, it’s imperative to demonstrate seven core competencies.

The months of October and November were tied with Top 11 Tips for a Great Elevator Pitch. Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to land more customers for your business — whatever you’re trying to sell – one skill you definitely need is a great elevator pitch. You need to prepare for any opportunities that come your way after diligent research and prospecting. Don’t be caught off guard. Create an introduction describing the value you provide, be concise, customize it for your target audience, and really know it – so you can deliver a flawless elevator pitch.

In December, the biggest draw: 11 Sales Strategies to Outsell Your Big Competitors. Big companies have obvious advantages over small businesses. Their brands are well-known. They can afford sales training, sales-support staff and customer-relationship management software. On the other hand, there are good reasons why Cyber Monday has become big. Yes, many online customers do it to save money on sales taxes. The other salient reason – poor customer service by many companies.

Overall, the year’s No. 1 topic: Top 11 Tips for a Great Elevator Pitch.

From the Coach’s Corner, also popular are the late-breaking video pages, including World, U.S. Business, Economy, Markets, Sci-Tech, Health, and Sports.

This year’s most popular videos covered these topics:

• Unemployment
• Eurozone financial crisis
• Debt-ceiling crisis
• Occupy Wall Street
• Middle East chaos/oil
• Hourly Wall Street Updates
• Science/Technology
• Japan’s earthquake
• Sports
• Health news/advice

“I do not like to get the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.”

-Ogden Nash

 

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Columnist Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

How to Create Luck and Fly High with Profits

 

Despite higher costs and a weak economy, some businesses are lucky in increasing profits. Often, it’s a result of success from competing in a zero sum marketplace. Companies survive and gain market share when their competitors fail. But that’s often because successful firms know how to create luck.

Fear is a factor when companies underperform.

But fear is also an acronym: FEAR, frantic effort to avoid responsibility. Fear is often the reason why people fail to perform.

Consider these typical situations:

• Do you let fear lead to paralysis from too much analysis?
• Do you give away your power when you encounter rude customers?
• Do you allow rejection in sales presentations to get you down?
• Do you idly sit as public officials create policies that harm your economic and political freedoms?

To create profits with strategic planning in a competitive marketplace and business adversity, here’s how to eliminate fear and create luck:

Create balance with an analysis and strategic plan. Don’t go overboard in planning, but look at your role in capitalizing on your strengths and weaknesses and identify opportunities and threats. Your best plans can go awry but you can minimize any challenges with the right amount of reflection for the performance of both you and your business, and execute with courage.

So, my question is how’s your strategic planning for the next 12 months?

Invest in your education. Learn from others how they deal with uncertainty in business. I’ve had literally thousands of telephone conversations with great mentors. That’s right, just a few personal meetings and countless telephone calls.

I love the business philosophy of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki. Perhaps he’s been justly criticized for some of his investment approaches, but his anecdotal lessons are inspirational. For example, his ideas on networking are insightful and he’s got an unusual take on the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules.”

Focus on marketing and sales simultaneously. Marketing is vital in creating a brand image. That might include public relations, a Web site, online prominence in social media and trade shows. Sales includes prospect and customer contact. Here are more tips to get strong results from your marketing plan.

If time and budget issues are taxing and you don’t have the right staff, consider alternatives:

To make a productive sales call, good marketing materials are an asset. And marketing results are stronger if your salespeople are effective. But sales and marketing usually requires two different skill sets. So consider a part-time independent contractor for marketing and commission pay for results-oriented salespeople.

Remember sales require an “inside job.” If you’re selling value, and speaking and acting with conviction, you’re destined to attract the right customers.

Create opportunities with partnerships and centers of influence. Develop relationships with influential people or groups and ask them for referrals. Look for ways to reciprocate. Rotary Clubs and chambers of commerce are good places to look for people who can be instrumental. They’ll help when you need it the most. I got my first two consulting gigs after being laid-off as a newscaster, and started meeting businesspeople over coffee. Using football as examples, here are nine steps for strategic alliance success.

Create great PR. My favorite PR example is my second client, the Utah State Fair, which was part of state government. After leaving the airwaves as a newscaster, I was hired in a 1988 Utah recession to get a $2 million state appropriation for repairing deteriorated historic buildings. At the time, asking for $2 million would be like asking for $65 million today adjusted for inflation. Legislators had been ignoring the fair and even rescinded funds they appropriated the prior year.

Effective marketing is both public and private. Following the lead of every dignitary who visits Salt Lake City, I advised my client to make a call on Mormon Church officials. Officially, the church didn’t influence public policy, but as a relative newcomer to Utah, I realized the head of the church was Ezra Taft Benson, who had been Secretary of Agriculture under President Eisenhower. Soon, a Mormon-owned newspaper published the headline: “Our Crumbling Fairgrounds.”

We scheduled events nearly every day, for example:

We took horse-drawn carriages to the state capitol “to take lawmakers for a ride.” Every newspaper published pictures with the caption, “Utah State Fair takes lawmakers for a ride.” (Actually, the veteran lawmakers ignored our invitations but the rookie lawmakers eagerly climbed into the carriages. But after the old-timers saw extensive pictures of the rookies, they eagerly cooperated on other PR efforts.) We hand-delivered bouquets of flowers donated by a grower to the morning DJs at the top 10 radio stations on Valentine’s Day to entice them to “Love a Fair.” During lunch that day, we delivered bouquets and messages to every state legislator and capitol employee.

The result: $2 million. (The following year lawmakers appropriated another $1 million without even being asked.)

We promptly issued a press release detailing how the appropriation was efficiently being invested so lawmakers wouldn’t change their minds again. If you need PR, but don’t have a budget? Here’s how to leverage the news media.

Cost-effective Internet options. Advantages in online marketing include: 1. Low overhead. 2. An opportunity to list a mega selection. 3. The Web is a great equalizer in competition. 4. International trade keeps getting bigger – remember you have the ability to sell outside the U.S.

A good barometer for advertising trends is national politics and how political candidates influence voters. Broadcast yourself. Check out YouTube. You’ll see an endless potpourri of video sales pitches.

Blog, publish or use online E-newsletters as options. Create effective press releases for your local media and don’t forget inserting them on the Internet.

There are numerous local e-marketing opportunities from Yahoo local listings to Craigslist. But if you want to reach prospects who are good citizens with positive cash flow, my preference is a good local media Web site. Here’s more on how small businesses can capitalize on cyber strategies for profit.

Face adversity with courage and detachment. Many great strategies will trigger vindictive opposition. The competition in Utah for legislative funding was intense. We were victims of dirty tricks by other special interest groups. But we had fun and ran the race without ever looking over our shoulders.

Stay focused like Ichiro. Practicing good habits makes for good performance. Respect your opponents. Be defensive — like Ichiro – with your prospects and customers – do not take them for granted. When businesses lose customers, my research shows 70 percent of the time it’s because their customers feel taken for granted.

Good luck with your strategies for creating luck to fly high with profits!

From the Coach’s Corner, don’t ignore your employees as opportunities for growth.

Pay your employees well. Be as generous as possible. Recognize them publicly. Employees are often more productive when they have a life – or job flexibility.

Treat your productive workers like you would a good customer, such as baseball or football tickets, nice dinners or their birthday off with pay.

Enhance organizational moral by making certain employees are best-suited for their responsibilities.

Look for opportunities to create a culture of personal growth. You’ll inspire loyalty and minimize turnover, which is a profit-destroyer.

So don’t forget your profit drivers – here’s how and why to partner with your employees.

Recruit employees on the four A’s of Hiring:

1. Attitude — look for positive attitude. Will they go the extra mile and create opportunities to blog about your company on the Internet?
2. Appearance — make certain they inspire confidence with a professional appearance.
3. Ability — make sure they have talent.
4. Angle — research their empathy skills – will they work well with peers and understand your customers’ angle or point-of-view? Do they know how to say thank you  – instead of the boring phrase, “have a nice day.” Do they how to prevent buyer’s remorse with customers?

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

-Seneca

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?