Pathways to Success
Check out our articles below for the latest thinking on leadership, sales, personal and professional development Strategez to Achieve your Goals sooner than sometime in the future; Reach your Potential or Accelerate Business Growth by growing profitable sales.
Goals can create dangerous expectations which lead to appalling behavior. If you don’t reach your goals, this can lead you into a perpetual state of anger, frustration and disappointment which ultimately leads you to feeling like a failure.
Most people accept that setting and achieving goals are a key driver of success. However, goal obsession can lead to exactly the opposite. If you are so obsessed with achieving one goal, you often overlook the bigger vision. You win the battle but lose the war.
Everyone expects instant success, a happy family life, a successful career or business, the perfect partner and financial freedom. Is it reality? Often no and the reason why is they lose their way or don’t know what they want.
A happy, eager employee is often the factor to tip the scales in your favor when there’s another job opportunity on the horizon, or when a client is a tough one to handle – a satisfied team member will always deliver their best performance.
You have already been appointed the CEO of your life. When you begin to evaluate the people in your life, some need to be promoted, others need to be fired and new ones hired.
Finding the right marketing mix is a challenge for most small businesses. Marketing and advertising can be expensive and if not done right, you end up wasting money on advertising that doesn’t work.
Praise is often underused and undervalued as a way of giving feedback, yet it has considerable potential to improve performance. Feedback and praise can be same thing; praise is feedback but feedback isn’t always about giving praise.
The top two reasons a start-up fails to become profitable is poor management and inadequate financing. Not having a business plan, ill trained employees, a bad location, poor customer service and even fraud can all contribute to a start-ups failure to gain momentum and become profitable.
80% of small businesses fail within the first 18 months and another 50% fail within the next 5 years. Understanding how these 8 key mistakes contribute to a business failing will help you survive these odds and thrive.
Networking is the art of making personal connections and is a vital component of your overarching marketing strategy. Effective networking gives you the ability to achieve more than just about any other promotional or marketing activity you choose to engage in.
Ever been to a meeting that dragged on forever and you couldn’t wait for it to end. You come away feeling, “Well that was a big waste of time and effort.” Consider the hourly rate of everyone who attends a meeting. This is a hidden cost most managers don’t think about.
Conflict in meetings is not always a bad thing. It can be exciting and energizing especially when it comes to new and innovative discussions. However, when not controlled, conflict can disrupt important initiatives and cause a major breakdown in teamwork.
Business development is not an event, it’s a process. The basis is about creating long term growth opportunities yet many in small business confuse sales with business development. Understanding the difference means success or failure in business.
It’s easy for new managers and leaders to get caught up with the trappings of leadership because they gain power, confidence and control. This can also be their undoing as an effective leader.
We all encounter this relative power level called a power gradient every time you interact with others. There are times you feel powerful, and other times you feel intimidated. You don’t need a corner office or hold an important job title to use your power to get things done.
The fear of public speaking is one of the most common fears people have. If you have aspirations to grow professionally, then speaking at ease in front of a group is critical to your success. Here are 11 ways to avoid a public speaking meltdown.
Getting a promotion at work or even a new job comes down to how well you communicate. So many people get hung up on the technical elements of role forget that being promoted comes down to establishing successful relationships.
Throwing money at an unplanned advertising campaign hoping your marketing message sticks is a waste of money. Taking a targeted approach results in a better return on investment.
Starting a home-based business has its pitfalls however when you include these 7 steps, you are far more likely to succeed. WHY, because there is more to creating a successful business than creating a business plan and having a few financial skills.
You would think being appointed to a management role that managers were qualified in leadership skills. They are told “you are a manager now – go manage’ without the necessary training and support to succeed.
Everyone experiences conflict in the workplace at some point. By understanding what causes conflicts to happen will help you find ways to resolve the conflicts amicably.
Managers and leaders are often nervous about giving feedback to others for fear of upsetting them and being disliked. Employees are equally fearful of being criticized unjustly.
If you allow stress to overcome you in the workplace, this affects your performance which in turn affects career and earning capacity not to mention the affect it has on your long term health.
To become debt free in business, it’s essential you plan carefully, establish enough working capital until you cash flow positively and employ the right outside contractors to offset what you are not good at.
Difficult personalities in the workplace can make your life miserable. Learning how to identify difficult personalities and deal with them will empower you to bring about pleasing changes.
Why spend money on sales and marketing to new prospects only to lose them with poor management practices. These 7 crazy excuses for losing sales are easily fixed with a little focus.
If you are not having success as a manager it might be due to your management style which is killing your career prospects. Understand which styles work and which don’t will greatly increase your ability to succeed.
Leadership is more than a title. The most successful leaders invest in growing their people. Employees are far more motivated when a leader invests in their personal and professional growth.
You need to sell yourself to progress your career or get that next promotion. By using the buying and selling process you dramatically increase your chance of landing the role.
You don’t have a second chance to make a first impression. More than making a good first impression, these 10 steps will help make a great lasting impression.
Transitioning into an effective manager requires a different set of skills the most important being communication and people skills.
To become an effective manager, active listening is an essential skill you must master. More than just listening, it’s also important to understand what is not being said.
Many new managers are promoted into their position and are expected to manage others with no training, mentoring or coaching. To get the best of of your people you must set the standards by which you can then manage their performance.
Discounting your price is an attack on your bottom line. Often buyers are just trying it on. Learn how to hold you price without discounting and profit.
Starting or buying a small business is a risk. Improve your success rate by investing in yourself, your leadership, management and sales skills, and you are far more likely to succeed in business.
Not all clients are worth spending your time and money on. Some of the most difficult clients you will ever have are the ones who want something for nothing. Don’t be afraid to fire them as a client.
When relationships in the workplace go sour, it immediately puts the business at risk. The reasons why is most people don’t understand the communication process.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in life. Like muscle tissue, the more you triumph over your struggles the stronger you become. Follow the 8-Step formula to turn your struggles into victories.
Making the wrong hiring decision can destroy the collective self-esteem of an organization. Preventative hiring decisions can keep the wrong people out to the right people in.
Teams move through fives stages of development. Understanding each stage will greatly enhance your ability as a leader to lead teams more effectively and prevent Groupthink.
Not all sales prospects are alike. In order to close more sales, you need to identify their social and learning styles and adjust your style to match to close more sales.
Hiring on personality and not on experience or skill sets, you risk making a poor hiring decision which destroys stakeholder value. Conduct a robust recruitment process to ensure you make good hiring decisions.
People don’t buy from people they don’t trust. Without establishing credibility with a new sales prospect you will fail to close the sale.
While a larger business can outgun a smaller business with marketing and advertising budgets, a small business has a number of advantages that allow them to compete profitably.
Employees think they should come first and business owners think the customer should come first. Getting this wrong could mean losing the customer to your competitors.
Awareness of your own leadership style and how if effects the culture and profitability of an organization is the hallmark of great leaders. Get it wrong and you destroy stakeholder value.
Not all sales people are equal. Depending on the complexity of the sales environment, different skill sets are required. When you hire the right person for the job, you are far more likely to enjoy sales success.
Transitioning to a leader, manager or business owner, you need to develop a new way of thinking. Forget about operating the business at a technical level and begin to operate at a strategic level.
Using a range of prospecting activities will ensure the longevity of your business. Keeping the top of your sales funnel with new leads is vital to business growth.
We are seeing the rise of a new kind of a sales team – a sales team that does not share an office and whose boss is not physically behind them, overseeing their every step. This presents special challenges for a sales manager.
Leadership and management are two very distinct systems of operation. Sometimes both functions overlap. Leadership and management are like both sides of a coin, each side has its own specific functions and characteristics; yet both are critical to success.
Many incoming sales calls are lost because the calls are mishandled. Here are 9 useful tips for increasing your closing rate on incoming sales calls.
For advertising to be effective,conduct your market research first so that you use the right medium to reach your target market. Getting it right upfront can save you money.
Leadership is not a title, it needs to be earned in order to gain respect and commitment. Here are 12 ways to enhance your leadership skills.
Starting your own business is one thing, growing sales in another. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and believe in yourself and follow these simple rules.
A team is only as good as it’s leader. When you invest in the people skills of the leader, the results flow through to the rest of the team leading to a more productive workforce.
Difficult people in the workplace can not only bring you down, it can also bring a business down and hurt your sales and lead to losing customers. Knowing how to deal with them will help build a positive culture.
Before you can sell anything, lead, manage or work with other people effectively, you must first establish rapport and is the most important skill to learn if you want to achieve your goals.
What great leaders have in common is the ability to understand the social style of their people. They adapt their style to suit the style of their people for increased communication and understanding.
Your technical skills alone will not increase your self-worth and earning potential. Investing in yourself by learning sales, leadership and communication skills will.
Anyone can sell cheaply enough. It takes a professional to hold your margins because discounting too quickly is an attack on your bottom line.
If you try to pitch your products and services too early you are unlikely to be able to close the sale. Closing comes at the end of the sales process so you need to understand the entire selling process first.
Customer complaints happen when their expectations are not met. Treat complaints as an opportunity to properly train staff and improve your business processes.
Social media can be a complex world if you are using it to grow your business. Using the right tools will not only simplify social media for you, it will save you time and money.
A brand should not to be confused with a logo – it’s far more complex. When you get it right and you attract new customers and build customer loyalty.
Because of the many automated tools available for communicating on social media, it’s easy to forget people buy from people not robots. Here’s how to improve your social media messages.
Leading and managing others is both complex and rewarding providing you don’t make these common mistakes. People like being led – not bossed around.
A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing your costs by 10%, reducing customer defection rate by 5%. Profitability can increase by 25% – $125% just by keeping your customers.
Sales are the lifeblood of any business and it is critical you keep the top of your sales funnel full with new prospects. Prospecting when done well contributes to business growth.
Many people get hung up with typical stereotypes and myths about sales. Successfully selling products or services is about being genuine, having empathy and being a good problem solver.
There are as many pitfalls in owning your own business as there are rewards. When you do your research up front, you are far more likely to succeed.
You can’t sell something successfully if you don’t believe in what you are selling. Successful sales also depend on finding the tension or dominant buying motive if you are to close the sale.
Networking is a cost effective way to grow your business exponentially by tapping into extended networks of your connections. People buy from people not companies.
Your people can make or break your business. If they are well looked after, they will contribute to the growth of a business especially if they are trained in sales.
One of the most expensive spend of your marketing budget is on advertising. When you take the mystery out of advertising, you will make a more informed decision.
Businesses don’t go out of their way to provide poor customer service, yet many businesses fail miserably. Providing a better service than your competitors can certainly give you an advantage.
Do you fumble for words when asked the question “What do you do?” When you create a powerful and compelling elevator pitch you will never have to fumble for words again.
People don’t buy from people they don’t like. Gaining the trust of a new prospect is the key to going to the next step in the sales process. These 9 steps will get you there quicker.
Not everyone can afford to employ an agency to create advertisements for you. You can easily waste money on ineffective campaigns but these 6 steps will help you get it right.
To be an effective leader, you need to develop a new way of thinking. Forget about operating the business at a technical level and begin to operate at a strategic or conceptual level.
If you are worried about growing a business, don’t confuse advertising with marketing. They are inter-connected but not the same. Advertising is a sub-set of an overall marketing strategy.
Marketing doesn’t always give you the results you want. By following this simple approach you can significantly improve your results for less money.
When you get the sales process working for you, you close more sales. The sales process is more than just pitching your products or services. When you get it right it works.
Why should people buy from you? The secret to generating quality leads is identifying who your customers are and pitching your products or services in a way that appeals to them.
The wrong leader can destroy stakeholder value as can having the wrong people working in the business. To grow a business, you need the right people.
If you aren’t proud to promote and sell your products and services, why should you expect anyone else to? Your attitude towards selling determines your level of success.
If you are struggling to grow your sales, you might be tempted to tell prospects what they want to hear because you are afraid of losing the sale. Bad idea!
It’s easy to waste money on ineffective marketing campaigns. If you want to get the most out of your marketing spend, this process will show you how.
Social media is often seen as the savior to growing your business. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Social media can be an effective promotional strategy when done right
“Don’t have time to network” you might say. But can you afford not to? The number one reason people don’t attend networking events is because of Fear. This post will help you overcome that fear.
You need to generate new sales leads because you will lose customers through natural attrition. Keep your sales funnel full at the top to ensure you have ongoing business.
When you launch into a sales pitch too early in the sales process, the prospect loses trust and confidence in you and you will most likely lose the sale.
Workplace stress has a huge effect on the performance of you and your people and as a result, impacts on the bottom line. When you learn to manage stress, your productivity immediately increases.
A key leadership and management skill is to learn the art of delegation. It not only grows your people it grows your business more effectively.
By building trust and confidence, asking effective questions and actively listening to your prospect, will enable you to influence their decision to buy from you.
Effective networking takes more than just giving out a business card. Follow these helpful tips to generate leads and receive business referrals.
Don’t miss any of these steps when meeting with a sales prospect. If you do, you will significantly lower your chances of closing a sale.
Networking is often overlooked as a cost effective way to generate leads and receive referral business yet so many people don’t see the value. Why?
Follow these simple steps when dealing with incoming sales calls and you will convert prospects into customers more often, and for more.
If you can’t close a sale on the spot, come away with something, another meeting, a proposal, a presentation or a newsletter signup. If you do you are more likely to sell the prospect down the track.
Winning proposals follow the buying and selling process along with the meeting process. Increase your success rate by following these 8 simple steps.
Prospects don’t buy because most salespeople don’t build rapport, have no credibility and fail to match the buying process with the selling process.
One of the reasons people can’t sell, is that they haven’t developed the skills. Learning these essential skills will help close more sales, more often.
Confidently presenting a sales proposal that succeeds takes time and planning. Follow these simple steps to present a winning proposal that ends with a positive outcome.
If you are not getting the results you want it could be the fear of selling that is holding you back. When you learn to follow a proven sales process you begin to have more success.
When you understand consumer behavior, by matching their buying process with a selling process, this increases your sales and grows your business.
Most people don’t know what to do at face-to-face networking events to generate leads because they fail to develop a networking strategy.
Most salespeople fail to close a sale because they miss some of these critical steps in the sales process. Follow these 10 critical steps to close more sales successfully.
Learning sales skills, developing a positive attitude towards selling and building self-belief will increase your confidence levels and contribute to winning outcomes.
A value proposition describes whats unique about your offer and entices sales prospects to want to engage with you generating more qualified leads.