personal development

Tag: personal development

5 ways to ask your clients about their problems (unintrusively)!

Posted on July 5, 2022 by Doogie Levine

Every business wants extended engagement or to sell their clients additional products and services. There are many fancy strategies to increase the initial sale like cross-selling, upselling, and subscription services; you get the point.

However, if you really want to keep a client, you don’t need to sell them extra bells and whistles. Instead, what you need to do is solve their problems.

In this article, we will discuss 5 strategies (opportunities) to discover additional problems and bring additional value to your people without making your people feel uncomfortable.

Problem Identifying techniques

Listen for the keywords.

When going through your prospecting, sales, or delivery of the experience, pay attention to what and how things are said. For instance, when people use words such as ” I think, ” I would like, ” it would be nice too. This is because they have opened the door for a question. So let’s explore this example:

Client “I think I rank well on google.” If you’re a marketer, the next question should be, how do you know? This creates an opportunity to engage in discovering how much they know and where their education gap is. Thus creating a chance to sell an additional solution.

In conclusion, study what language people use to understand when they have an unknown or none defined problem.

Magic Wand Sale’s Question

Now many consultants have some form of magic wand question. It could be if I had a magic wand that could fix any problem in your business; what would it fix? Or it can look like this, if we were celebrating a year from now, what would have happened in your business?

Getting your people to chat about what they want to see changed is key. They will describe something with more detail than my staff to their job or 5 million in revenue. Instead, they start describing a scenario where their employees know what to do, how to do it, ask fewer questions, and solve more problems. Now those are all tactical elements that be solved.

The lesson to learn here is to get to the details and push the person to share how they think and feel.

Share your observations

This is my favorite way to learn more about a person because it takes a lot of finesse. In the first two, you were simply asking questions and listening for what and how they responded. However, here we’re going to share our responses.

I am going to share my simple steps on how to share an observation without offending others.

Ask for permission “may I share an observation.”
Shit sandwich, share something good, the observed problem, and the hope.
Shut up, let them speak; the key is to wait for them to agree
Offer a solution
Add it to the contract

I know this was highly simplified, but when done right, you can bring up the many additional problems you want to work on and solve with your client. Practice the steps above and see how things begin to change.

Indirect Survey

Many businesses use satisfaction surveys; however, very few genuinely use them well. We tend to only survey at the end of the experience, depending on what may be correct, but if you provide the ongoing or long-term service, it is best to have multiple engagement points. My cadence is 6 weeks in, 3-month mark, and then every 3-4 months after that. Once you have your sequence, it is time to discuss the questions.

When, how, and what you ask are the superpowers of an excellent survey. So many of us will use questions to understand how we did but rarely do we add questions about unmet needs. In this article, we’re talking about discovering additional problems; if you want help creating a kick-ass survey, feel free to reach out.

Here are a few questions to add to your next survey to get to their problems:

Was there anything that you expected but didn’t receive?
Please finish the statement; it would be nice if (insert company) did …?
If (insert company) had a magic want that could solve your biggest problem, what would it be

Those are just a few of the ones I through into my survey, but the point when you craft these questions is to think about what would be helpful to hear. Think about adding this to your next survey, and don’t forget to follow up.

Qualitative research

It is essential to discover precisely what your customers want. Conducting a qualitative market study includes mapping customer journeys and evaluating data regarding customer pain points. Some vital steps for conducting research are:

Map out your customer journeys gives businesses valuable insights and understanding regarding common customer pain points.
Create customer personas to focus your time on qualified prospects, guide product development per customer needs, and align all work across your business.
Holding focus groups with internal and external customers
Using survey data

You can do this while you’re currently engaged with a client, or you can do it before engaging. Information and education are the most important pieces when solving a problem. The more you have, the better equipped you will be to help your customers.

The superpower of qualitative research is it provides you with a tool to discuss issues you have observed but have felt uncomfortable bringing up because of the level of emotional attachment. It allows you to turn those issues into objects, thus depersonalizing them.

I hope you enjoyed this quick blog about my top 5 ways to ask your client about their problems. I look forward to connecting if you need additional help or want to discuss anything in this blog.

Remember, the best time to change was yesterday, so you better start today.

Business 2.01: Grow the Right Way

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Doogie Levine

Show how your business grows just like planting a tree. It is to serve as symbolism for the work we put in as business owners.

Two weeks ago, we talked about the first three of the seven specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process. Here are all seven again:

Primary Aim
Strategic Objectives
Organizational Strategy
Management Strategy
People Strategy
Marketing Strategy
Systems Strategy

(The first three focus areas were covered in the blog: Business 2.0, please read before continuing)

Creating a focus in these seven areas will get you on the path to creating a business that works for you. Today we are going to cover the last four.

Before we jump into it, think of constructing your business model like planting a tree. At first, it’s so tiny and weak you wonder if it will even make it through the night. But, you keep watering, fertilizing, and nurturing it. Your ideas will grow the trunk, and each of these strategies will extend out like the branches of your now a strong tree. Finding the perfect support staff, employees, vendors/suppliers, and other relationships will make your tree flourish with leaves and flowers to bear fruit.

Grab your pen and paper, roll up your sleeves; it is time to get to work.

Management Strategy

If I told you, having excellent management is not about finding great people with a lot of experience but about creating a system to cultivate, promote, and train talent.

The way you structure your management team development is essential to your growth and your employees’ happiness and, ultimately, your customers/clients. This strategy is results-oriented and doesn’t depend on the people but the actual system that’s in place.

A management strategy, in short, includes goals, rules, company direction (mission/vision), standards (supervisor expectation of behavior and performance), skill development. That tells your employees how to act, grow your business, and meet clients’ expectations.

It is a well-orchestrated procession of actions that allows your staff to exceed your clients’ expectations while fulfilling strategic objectives over and over again. It is your operation manual, your series of checklists, scripts, and action processes.

People strategy:

If your management strategy is what you want your people to do, your people strategy is how you get them to do it.

You need to show your employees how you feel about their job performance and dedication to your business. They also need to understand “why” they are doing specific tasks. This helps your employees personally connect to their job, leading to better production and a happier workplace.

There are several strategies you can use to get the highest performance of your employees (They are in order of effectiveness):

Constant, regular, and public reminder/thanks of how their work is impacting the community (companies goals)
Internal education program
Internal staff dream program
The innovation game
A learn this business program:” not just your job.”
Performance Incentive Programs
Contests that reward high performance
An employee of the Month
Performance/Holiday Bonuses

These are just a few of the ideas you can use. To create a great people strategy is to find the balance between appreciation, education (the why), and directing of staff energy.

One of the best ways to appreciate your employees is by calling a meeting and asking them how they would like to be rewarded. Think about it for a while and put the best strategy into play. Keep it fresh and change up the system you use from time to time to keep your employees guessing. Once they get used to the prize, it’s time for a whole new approach.

You need to build a community within your company. There needs to be support, appreciation, and respect. The more “at home” an employee feels, the better they will perform and the higher their loyalty level.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing is, of course, essential to the success of any business, but it also must work cohesively with the other strategies you’re using. There are two central pillars of successful marketing strategy-the demographic and psychographic profiles of your customers.

The psychographic tells you what your customers are the most likely to buy, and the demographic tells you who they are, which can help you learn why they buy specific items.

With this information, you have answered the pivotal questions of marketing:

Who are they?
Where are they at?
What do they want?

Now all you have to do is speak to them.

Systems Strategy

There are three types of systems in every business:

Hard Systems
Soft Systems
Information Systems

Hard systems refer to those that immutable they’re opening and closing procedures, your standards of office cleanliness. These are the systems that don’t have any wiggle room and are usually all internal.

Information systems include customer data, product information, financial…anything with data and numbers. This the recording of important information to the operation, use, and success of the business.

The most important of all three systems is the soft systems because it is where your employees have the most flexibility in execution and usually require the most creativity.

The most critical soft system is your sales system. In your sales system, the two keys to success are structure and substance. The structure is what you sell, and substance being how you sell it.

All three systems are essential to your business’s success, and while they all have their particular roles, they all must work together to get the job done. This also goes for your entire business development program.

Recap

I want to take a moment to recap on the ideas we went over through these business development lessons. We have covered a lot of the series of blogs.

An entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth, is an assumption that anyone can succeed at business with:

Desire
Some capital
Projected a targeted profit

There are essentially three key roles that need to be filled to set your business up for success:

The Technician
The Manager
The Entrepreneur

The four different stages of a business life cycle are:

Infancy
Adolescence
Growing Pains
Maturity

There are a few things we are going to talk about:

Business Format Franchise
The Franchise Prototype
Franchise Prototype Standards

There are three main areas of business development:

Innovation
Quantification
Orchestration

Seven specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process. Here are all seven again:

Primary Aim
Strategic Objectives
Organizational Strategy
Management Strategy
People Strategy
Marketing Strategy
Systems Strategy

Question and Actions

If you have been following along over the past few months, I thank you for those who have not; then you have a lot of work to do. Below are guiding questions and action steps. As always, I am here to help.

What do I do now? First, identify what role in your business you play. Are you a technician, manager, or entrepreneur?
Where do I need the most help? Take some time to think about the area you need the most help, then start taking your business’s next step.
What will it take to get past my ego? As entrepreneurs, we constantly feel we must go it alone, but in reality, once we get past our ego holding us back, we can get the help we need to succeed truly.

I am here to help you work through all of these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start. Feel free to contact me directly at doogie@ideasactionsuccess.com. I am happy to answer any questions you have and discuss the success of your business.

Business 2.0 Replace Yourself

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Doogie Levine

Prototyping is not just for building robots. It should be an integral part of every entrepreneur’s plans. It should be every business owner’s goal to have their business run without them needing to make a decision.

This is why it is imperative to think of your business as a franchise prototype. This business development method allows you to remove your emotional attachment from your business’s tasks and focus on your desired outcome.

The seven specific areas you need to consider in your business development prototype process:

Primary Aim
Strategic Objectives
Organizational Strategy
Management Strategy
People Strategy
Marketing Strategy
Systems Strategy

These seven areas are the step-by-step process through which you convert your existing business into a perfectly organized model for thousands more, just like. In this lesson, we are going to cover the first three steps. Get your pen and paper ready to start creating your prototype.

Primary Aim

Your primary aim is the answers to all the questions. It is not just the target but the arrow, the bow, the water bottle on your hip, and the reason you got out of bed. Simply put, it is the purpose that is bigger than your business.

It’s essential in business development to set goals and see a vision for the future. This needs to go beyond the business, and you need to think about what you want out of life. How would you answer the following questions:

What do you dream about?
How do you see your success unfolding?
Who do you wish to be?
What is your ideal lifestyle?

Knowing and understanding your aim will give you the momentum to get started and the stamina to see it through. Take a minute to write them down and tape them to your desk for a constant reminder of what you’re aiming for.

Ask yourself every day, how am I meeting my primary aim?

Strategic Objectives

Once you have the picture of how you want your life to be and realize it is more than fancy cars, big houses, and that it is a state of feeling. Then it is time to set strategic objectives. These are essential in taking your business from surviving to thriving. All of these objectives should offer solutions for how to get to your primary aim. There are many things you can use to set strategic goals, but here is a couple of the most popular:

Money: Setting monetary goals is a great, simple way to see how you are doing at any point in the game. It’s easy to measure and easy to find adjustments to help meet this goal.
Worthy Opportunities: These are emotionally driven goals. This is how you measure lives impacted; client served, positive reviews, in essence, you speak to your customer’s psychographics needs and, to a further extent yourself.
Through or Throughput: This is your automation goal of removing yourself from the day-to-day equation. We will measure this by hours worked, emails answered, or any way you wish. The critical piece is that these goals get you to business Nirvanaha when your business work for you and you don’t have to work for your business.

The key to setting standards and goals is not to limit yourself or stress yourself out. You need to find some quantifiable things you can use to measure your progress toward your primary aim. These are just three suggestions, but make sure no matter what standards you set, you are paying attention to the details, as these are one of the biggest keys to your success.

Organizational Strategy

The strength of your organizational structure can make or break your business, so it’s essential to take the time to put together a solid framework for your business to grow from. Generally, a company is organized around the roles and responsibilities that need to be taken care of daily. And the personalities that need to fulfill those roles.

No matter what roles and responsibilities you’ve defined for your employees, you must always keep your primary aim separate from your company’s primary aim or mission statement. Once you’ve identified the primary aim for your company, it will be easy to set up a position structure that will work.

Don’t forget to put together position contracts. Your employees should sign a statement of their roles and responsibilities. This helps keep them clear for you, the employee, and other employees/vendors or other individuals.

Question & Actions

You’re probably going, wow, I have a lot to do. Well, you do but let’s create some action steps to get you started.

Answer the big question: What is my primary aim? This is more complex than just answer the question, but what you need to do is create your first draft. Take a stab at it, write it down, and test it for the next few weeks.
What are my strategic objectives? Create one goal in each category and start tracking it. Set aside time each week to review and see how you’re meeting that goal.
How can I automate or replace one job I do? Set a goal to automate, delete, or replace one task that you currently do. Then give yourself a timeframe to do it. Then repeat until your business is running itself.

You can see how these areas all work together to build a solid structure to build your business. If you need help defining any of these areas, don’t hesitate to contact us. Look out for the next four steps in a later blog.

Do You Have Enough PD in your life?

Posted on February 24, 2021February 24, 2021 by Doogie Levine

Do you want to make more money?

If I were to stop you on the street and ask you if you want to make more money? You would probably say ” Hell Ya I do !”

If I were then to ask you what is the best investment to make more money? What would you say, probably something like; real estate, stocks, crypto, etc.

If your business owner, it might be marketing, advertising, new salespeople, a new product or service.

What if I told you were wrong that, indeed, the best way to make more money is to invest in yourself. You probably be dismissive and say like ya, of course, but. But what, do you actually do it. I mean really, do you set aside the time and money to prioritize your personal development.

I bet you don’t; you will spend thousands on any of the above improvements with the promise of 2x returns. However, it is well documented from the greatest minds of our time and history, such as Oprah, Barack Obama, Warran Buffet, Bill Gates, Lori Greiner, Da Vinci, Aristotle, and more. That the only way to get 10x ROI is investing in ourselves.

“Income seldom exceeds personal development.” Jim Rohn

With all of these great people, you would think it would be an easy argument for making personal development a priority.

Then why is it so difficult for us to make development a priority? The main culprit is the short-term mindset. It is the fear that if I don’t make another sale today, I am going to go hungry. For some, this may be true, but have you ever acknowledged that it was your short-term outlook that got you there in the first place.

“Personal development is a major time-saver. The better you become, the less time it takes you to achieve your goals.” ―Brian Tracy

I want to help; here are my top tips to start thinking long-term and to start making personal development a part of your life, business, and career.

Add Yourself to the Priority List

Start by setting aside time. You’re probably saying, how am I supposed to set aside anytime when I already feel like I don’t have enough time. What is the top priority in your life? I bet it is your family, your dog, a significant other, a child, clients.

Do you make time for them? For most people, the answer is an overwhelming yes. Then why are you not on that list? One of my favorite things is when you listen to the safety brief on an airplane, and they say put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others. They say this because the most effective way to help someone is when you’re as prepared as possible.

A quick tip: on a sheet of paper, write down the names of your top priorities. Then at the top of this list, add your name. Then keep that list in a place you can see it every day and ask yourself, “How am I making time for my top priority today?

Share what you want to accomplish.

Now that you understand your importance let’s talk about creating time. Most people will tell it is as simple as going on to your calendar and blocking off an hour or two. They’re right; however, they’re also wrong. They leave out the number one thing, which is communication.

Stop rolling your eyes because I used the buzzword communication. The number one reason people fail is that they fail to articulate the emotional importance of dedicating time. To their most important stakeholders (The other top priorities).

A quick tip: Before you embark on this mission of getting control of your time. Share your mission with the people who be impacted. Tell your significant other, colleague, boss, kids, parents, friends, and clients that you will not be available except for true emergencies. You simply explain that you are taking the time to become the best spouse, parent, manager, employee, problem solver that you can be. If they don’t believe you then show them.

Set a Strategy

Great you have set yourself as the priority; you set aside time and communicated what you wish to accomplish to those important to you. Now it is time to make a plan. Take your first few session to identify the area of your life that you want to focus on. Do not try to work in all the areas of your life at the same time.

Since I work with business owners, my suggestion will be geared toward them. The business owners I work with are looking to grow their businesses. They usually struggle with work-life balance, having control of their day, and developing trust with their employees.

To address these issues, here the top 5 areas for them to focus on at the beginning.

Personal Habits, such as time management, take the time to identify how you spend every day and how you want to spend your time. Then chose one area to improve and do it.
Educate Yourself; workout your mental muscles, read a book, newsletter, etc. or even better write about your industry.
Exercise; will lower stress and provide you a place to develop great ideas.
Visioning; spend time thinking about where you want to see your business in 5, 10, 15 years and identify what you need to change personally to get there. Also, you think about changes in your industry.
Reaffirming you’re why, take the time to remember why you started your business in the first place and celebrate the achievements you have had, and think about how to thank those that got you to where you are.

Don’t go at this alone.

You have begun to implement your strategy, and your feeling good. The first three days felt great. You read a chapter of a remarkable book, exercised for the first time in months, and even wrote a thank you letter to a loyal staff member. Then day 4 or 5 go by and things start to feel hard; you struggle with staying committed. You’re enjoying the changes you have made but you struggling to put out all the fires from your day.

Don’t fret; this is where my last suggestion comes into play. Get an accountability partner or coach. This is someone who can help you navigate these new challenges and keep you committed to the change you want to make.

Remember, it is not about the short term. It is about the long-term effects. It is a marathon; it is a hell of a lot easier to train when you what someone in your corner.

Well, there you have it, the quickest way to your 10x returns is through a long path of personal development. Remember, the first step in controlling your business is managing yourself. If you enjoyed this blog, please share it with a business owner or friend who can benefit from it. Thanks for reading.