Two things that business people find very challenging are thinking ahead and doing things in order of importance.

Doing these two things makes the difference between success in business and just surviving. And the same is true for all areas of our lives.

Most people have heard of the Pareto Principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 Principle. Roughly stated this says that in most businesses 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers.

Other examples of the Pareto Principle are:

Reading:      20 percent of the book contains 80 percent of the content.
Job:            20 percent of our work gives us 80 percent of our satisfaction.
Products:    20 percent of the products bring in 80 percent of the profits.
Picnic:         20 percent of the people will eat 80 percent of the food!

Hence, 20 percent of a business owner’s priorities will give him 80 percent of his production, if he spends his time, energy, money and personnel on the top 20 percent of his priorities.

When you do this, you can get a 400 percent or fourfold return in productivity!

Prioritizing takes brain power, so do it first thing in the morning when you are fresh.  This means BEFORE you even check email!  Don’t let your email or facebook activity determine your priority list.  Make your to do list and then circle the three tasks that are most important for the health and growth of your business. Start working immediately on one of these.  Do what you need to do to allocate time and money to these top priorities.

It’s OK to have 80% of your “to do” list undone at the end of the day as long as those are the lower priority items.  At the start of each day, reevaluate the priorities and keep concentrating on the top 20% each day and you’ll see a positive change.

Taking the time to identify your priorities will make a world of difference if you then concentrate on just the top 20%. 

What is your top priority?  Take your “to do” list and identify only 20% of the items as highest priority.  And now spend 80% of your day on those items.

I truly believe that having one’s priorities in place can boost one’s productivity and personal satisfaction and make your business grow to its full potential.

What are your guiding principles?  Writing them out and putting them into a credo will help guide you through both good and bad times.  By taking ownership of your values and defining them, you will be able to steer your business to success.

The real value in having a written credo is the actual act of thinking through it and developing your own.  However, I’m including a sample below to inspire you.  This comes from Brad Sugars, a successful entrepreneur who has owned and operated 30 different businesses.  These are his guiding principles and his thoughts on why he has chosen them.

1.        Be Organized.  Organized minds are clear, and clear minds take action towards clear objectives, so get organized and as clear as possible in your life and business affairs.  Start with your desk and work area, then with your plans and actions.  Schedule a written plan of your activities and objectives and stick with it the entire day.  Do this the night before and you’re ahead of 90 percent of your competitors.

2.       Be Dedicated.  Every day, do at least one thing you’ve been putting off.  As the great Jim Rohn has said: “There are two types of pain you will go through in life – the pain of discipline and the pain of regret.”  Each moment you can decide which you’d rather experience.  Successful people know that the pain of discipline is the price of their success.  Start making it the price of yours.

3.       Be Confident.  Feel as good as possible and achieve a sense of well-being by just being quiet and contemplative for 15 minutes every day.  Also, find a way to exercise at least 15 minutes every day.  Both will boost positive feelings about yourself, which translates into a confidence that is attractive to others – including new customers and clients.

4.       Be Appreciative.  Tell your family, friends and business associates how much you appreciate them.  Be generous with praise and compliments – and find more things people in your world are doing right rather than doing wrong.

5.       Be Optimistic.  Leave past failures in the past and focus positively on your future.  If you are a glass-half-empty person, start seeing the glass as being half-full.  Life – and business – is more enjoyable that way.

6.       Get Educated.  Read something that improves your mind every day.  Keep yourself away from unproductive people, activity and news.  Become a master and an expert in your industry, and more business will flow to you over time simply on the basis of your credibility and expertise in your field.

7.       Be Sociable.  Be charming and agreeable.  Never speak badly of anyone.  You never know if your next big client or customer is within earshot of something you have to say.  Make it positive, and you’ll never have to worry about negative consequences.

8.       Be Alert.  Open yourself to new ideas, experiences and people who can teach you something new – and stay out of ruts and routines.  This is one of the best ways to be aware and focused on new opportunities.  Remember that some of the greatest product breakthroughs have come from people recognizing the value of interesting and unique innovations.

9.       Be Dependable.  Meet all of your business, social and moral obligations punctually, honestly and honorably.  If you are the “go to” person or the “go to” business, you’ll never have to worry about having to generate extra leads or word-of-mouth referrals.

10.   Be Decisive.  Make a decision right now.  My general rule is that if I’m 80 percent certain, the extra 20 percent of my indecisiveness is a mixture of emotions based on both excitement and fear.  My attitude is to let excitement win more times than not.  Is it 100 percent successful every time?  No.  But then again, nothing ever is.  All I know is that I’ve had a lot more fun when I’ve let excitement win.

11.   Be Human.  Remember to experience the journey as well as the results.  It’s absolutely necessary to keep your attention focused on your goals, but don’t miss out on all the great experiences going on around you right now.  After all, when you get to your destination, you realize that some of the greatest lessons learned and values gained were found in the trip there.

12.   Be Tough.  Demand only the highest and best standards of everyone you surround yourself with…and that includes setting, demanding and being accountable for high standards for yourself.  Remember that as the leader goes, so goes the organization.  And if you are truly leading, you have to be firm and consistent in setting, establishing and following your own “rules of the game.”

13.   Give and You Shall Receive.  Give the thing you want most and you’ll be amazed at what you get in return.  See all opportunities as a way to give and share and add value, and you’ll see your efforts multiplied in ways you couldn’t have imagined, for the greater good of you, your company and your customers.

To truly build up your business, you’ll have to build up yourself as well.  Think of your credo as the guiding principles that will steer you towards success.

There have been so many studies on body language.   We know that our body movements send signals, even when we don’t mean to.  Research indicates that nonverbal communication has a much greater imnpact and reliability than spoken words.  And I just read about a study that showed mirroring body language can help close more sales.   Mirroring refers to copying other people’s body movements and repeating their words.  It is believed that this behavior helps people form bonds and strengthen relationships with others.

A Northwestern University study found that negotiators who copied their counterparts’ gestures and movements, such as running their fingers through their hair or leaning back in their chair, were actually able to secure a better deal.   And in a recent study at the University of Wisconsin, they found that salespeople who mirrored the expressions, sentences, and body movements of their customers sold more products than those salespeople who did not.  The salespeople who mirrored also rated higher on customer satisfaction surveys than those who didn’t.

Mimicking others seems to make them feel more rapport with you.  And this increased rapport can lead to more sales.  Are you ready to try it?  When you do, make sure that you are maintaining eye contact and paying attention to what the customer is saying.  You do not want to be so busy scanning their body looking for gestures to imitate that you lose track of what is going on in your conversation!  And don’t mimic every action.  Repeat their words only occasionally and do not make too many unnecessary movements.   Subtlety is the secret. 

Try to build this rapport by mirroring in the first 10-15 minutes of the appointment.  This subconsciously tells prospects that you like them and agree with them.   If there are a lot of crossed arm/closed body postures, gradually change your postures to be more open by uncrossing your arms, etc.  Your prospect will hopefully follow suit!

No matter how hard a company tries, once in a while something will happen that causes a customer to complain.  The way in which this complaint is handled can make a big difference in future sales.  I have a personal example of this.

There are three dry cleaners in my town that I have used in the past.  They were all fine and I had no real preference for one over the other.  None of them stood out – until they ruined a shirt.  The first two cleaners said, “Oh well.  There’s really nothing we can do.”  One actually tried to blame the mistake on me, the customer!  The third cleaner pointed out the stain on my shirt and acknowledged their mistake.  I then received a written apology from the owner, a check for the value of my shirt, AND a $25 gift certificate for future cleaning.  Guess which dry cleaner I use exclusively now!

I have spent much more money at this cleaner than what it cost them to remedy the situation.  And the other cleaners lost all my future business.  Here are a few tips for the best way in which to handle a customer complaint in your business.

First of all, be prepared.  You must anticipate negative reactions and be ready to deal with them.  Make a list of all the potential problems you can think of.  Then prepare a list of remedial actions you can take for each problem you have identified.  Prepare for these cases and most importantly, train your staff on how to handle them.

We all believe so strongly in our product that it is hard to hear a complaint.  We often become defensive, unsympathetic, or even angry when confronted by a customer.  But the best thing to think about is the opportunity this customer is giving you to improve your product or service.  Accept this input graciously.

If someone complains in your store, immediately bring them to a quieter place, away from other customers (so there is no audience and no one feels additional pressure).  Listen to the complaint without interrupting.  Then ask a question or two in a nonthreatening tone.  You want to make sure they understand that you want to help them. 

Apologize in a sincere way and thank the customer for bringing this to your attention.  Remember that your customer really does want your product or service to work for them – and this is what you want too!

Customers like to be thanked.  And they like to be part of the solution.  Ask them how things can be improved.  And then thank them for helping you.  Offer them a meaningful solution and, if appropriate, explain that you will talk to the employee involved.  Do not let the customer leave without a solution!

If you do these things well, most or all customer complaints will turn into returning business.

I meet many business owners every week.  Some are wildly successful and others are struggling.  It makes me wonder, “Why are some so successful and others not?”  There are of course several different reasons, but one thing that successful people seem to have mastered is the right mind set.

Now, having the right mind set for success can be learned.  It is not always easy to learn, but with work, you can change your own mindset.  Just as top athletes continually train their bodies for peak performance, successful business owners need to continually train their minds.

There are many different aspects to a successful mindset.  Some of my favorite books that elaborate on this are:  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker, Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy, and The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale.

The most important thing is that you MUST have an undying belief that your business will achieve the success you envision.  But this faith is not the same as blind optimism.  You must also be able to look clearly at your situation and understand the obstacles.  You cannot just sit there thinking good thoughts and wait for the good things to arrive.  You need to attack the problems facing you with an action plan and the intention of achieving what you want.

But it is amazing to me how many people don’t know what they want.  They don’t know what they want for themselves or their business!  Take time to do this today.  It does take some time to really think about what you want in life.  But the time spent envisioning your future is well worth it.  Once you’ve pictured this success in your mind, write it down.  Writing something down is one of the best ways to make it happen.  Truly!  And keep these written goals where you can see them.  I know one successful business owner who puts his goals on post-it notes and sticks them on his bathroom mirror.  So he sees them every morning as he starts his day. 

Having this vision or goal in your mind throughout the day will help you tackle all those obstacles in front of you.  You can tackle them with energy and enthusiasm because you know this will bring you closer to your envisioned success.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins talks to James Stockdale who was a Vietnam Prisoner of War for seven years.  He survived years of horrendous torture and attributed his survival to his mindset.  He said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end…”  When Collins asked Stockdale about who did not make it out, he replied, “Oh, that’s easy, the optimists.  Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’  And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go.  Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’  And Easter would come, and Easter would go…  And they died of a broken heart.”  Stockdale then added, “This is a very important lesson.  You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

If you are going to survive as a business owner, you need to have the absolute belief that will achieve the success you envision, but you must also confront the reality in front of you.  Recognize the problems as challenges for you to conquer.  Find the passion and enjoyment that got you started and let that passion shine!

You have goals, you know the steps that need to be taken to get there, but how do you find time to do them?  If you are feeling swamped by too many things to do, I first recommend writing To-Do Lists every night.  Before you go to bed, write two To-Do Lists:  one for tomorrow and one for the next month.  You can even write down project lists or idea lists.  But if you get it written down, you will probably sleep better and wake up with solutions and ready to tackle things.

How you invest your time will determine your success.  Many people make the mistake of getting the little things out of the way before they tackle the big things.  But the best advice is to get the big things out of the way first!  And actually some of the little things may disappear.

Schedule your time so that you can do the important things during your best “mentally alert time.”  I find that for most people this is the morning.  And make sure you are making the distinction between important and urgent.  Urgent things scream at you for attention to be done NOW.  Important things are the actions that help you achieve your goals.  They are more long term and too easily put aside.  Yes, you have to take care of urgent things, but you also must take care of the important things in order to reach your goals.  Urgent things have a way of interrupting you and taking you away from the important tasks, so I recommend working on the important things in a place where you will not be disturbed.  You might actually have to leave the office in order to escape the urgent things.  Try a few hours in your home office, the coffee shop, or the library – anywhere that you will not be bombarded with urgent tasks!  Then turn your phone off, don’t look at incoming messages, etc. and do your concentrated work.

The other important thing is to set a time limit for working on each item.  If you give a task all day, it will take all day.  So set a time for completing it and then when the time is up, move on to the next one. 

Success in business is usually the result of spending more of your time doing what you are very good at and excited about, working on the best opportunities and the highest value responsibilities.  So always think in terms of how you are investing your time.  Look at your “To Do List” every day and decide what to delegate and what to leave undone.  Increase the amount of time that you spend on the parts of the business that you have the most passion for!  How you invest your time really will determine your success.

I just read about a retailer who was trying to move a certain line of jewelry.  She had tried moving the display, asking salespeople to push the items, running a few traditional sales, etc. but nothing was helping.  These items were just not selling.  She left a note for the floor manager to mark them with price tags that were ½ the current price in hopes of getting rid of them while she was visiting another location.  When she returned, she discovered that the pieces had been marked at 2x the price, not ½!  And the pieces had been selling like hotcakes! 

This retailer was shocked of course, but I’ve seen this many times.  Price can indicate quality for some  people.  In this case, her customers were looking for good quality pieces and to them, expensive meant good.  The price tag indicated to them that these were good quality pieces and when they viewed them as such, they were happy with what they saw.

This reminded me of a time when my wife was working for an environmental education center and they wanted to make sure every child had the opportunity to join their new nature class.  They developed a great curriculum and hired top-notch instructors and then offered these classes free.  Guess what?  No one signed up!  Six months later they offered the exact same classes with the same title, instructors, etc. but attached a $25 fee.  The classes filled and had waiting lists!  This was hard for a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading their message to as many people as they could to understand, but again, people equated price with quality and did not want to waste their time with a “free program.”  They assumed that a higher price meant a higher quality.  And the organization was actually able to reach more people by charging higher prices.  This is a lesson in how underpricing can send the wrong message.

I have always maintained that you cannot build long-term customer relationships on the cheapest prices.  There is always someone who is willing to offer a lower price.  My advice is to never sell on price alone.  Sell quality, value, service and unique benefits.  And sometimes in order to increase your sales, you may have to raise your price!

“What is a Business Coach?”  This is a question that I am hearing more and more.  As business coaching gains popularity, more people are talking about it and wondering if it is right for them.

A Business Coach is just like a sports coach. A sports coach pushes an athlete to achieve optimum performance, provides support when they are exhausted and teaches the athlete to execute plays that their competition does not anticipate.

The role of a business coach is to help you improve your business through guidance, support and encouragement. I help clients with sales, marketing, management, team building and so much more.  Just like a sports coach, I make them focus on the game.  Motivation is at the core of everything we go through.

Unlike a business consultant, a business coach teaches you how. 

You know that in order to grow you need to be learning more.  Business education has moved into a new realm, with business mentoring and coaching taking over from traditional consulting, books, and seminars so that you get the right information at the right time to keep your business growing.

As the world of business moves faster and becomes more competitive, having a Business Coach is no longer a luxury; it has become a necessity.  Whether you work from home, are just starting out, or run a multi-million dollar organization, a business coach is one of the fastest ways to a better business and a better lifestyle.  If you are still unsure about it, sign up for a free session just to check it out!

 “Think and act – two words of progress.”   -John Patterson

In my last blog I wrote about recycling great ideas.   So here’s an idea taken from John Patterson who was President of the National Cash Register Company and was considered a visionary in salesmanship and entrepreneurship.  I actually read about this in Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching which is based on John Patterson’s principles of sales.  (recycling…)  It’s a good little read and has many gems taken from Patterson’s Sales Training manuals from over 100 years ago.

Patterson believed that progress was the result of thought.  He encouraged his salespeople to spend time every day thinking.  What a great idea!  Think!  Try it today.  Set aside 15 minutes just to think about your business.  Here are some questions to think about: 

How can I find new customers?

Are my customers loyal?

How does my customer benefit from using my product?

How did I better myself today?

What did I learn today?

Is my attitude better today than it was yesterday?

Did I get a referral today?

Did I give a referral today?

How am I going to invest my time today?

What actions can I take to improve my business?

John Patterson did not actually try to sell cash registers.  His campaigns focused on creating the demand for the receipt.  What can you create a demand for?

“Think!  Do it for a week.  The results will be so amazing, you’ll do it for a lifetime.”   -Jeffrey Gitomer

The more business books I read, the more I realize that the same ideas are being recycled over and over.  This is not to say that you shouldn’t read these books.  In fact, the ideas are being repeated because they are great concepts and strategies that will work.  This has just gotten me thinking about all the great ads and marketing ideas out there right now – that are ripe for recycling!

 The most efficient use of your time as a business owner is to use something that you know works.  The trick is to look outside your industry.  This is something that too few people take advantage of.  I encourage you to become more aware of all the marketing around you.  We are all bombarded by ads and direct mail pieces every day.  Notice how dry cleaners, dentists, carpenters, lawyers, florists, etc. are getting their word out.  Which offers grab your attention?  Pick some killer headlines from ads and use the best parts of these in a new headline and add the details for your product.  Rewrite a direct mail piece that you liked.  It is always easier to start with something than to start with a blank slate!   Keep a file of great ads you see or jot down offers or ideas that catch your attention.  Next time you need a new marketing idea, looking through this file might help you think “outside the box.”  Pay particular attention to other products and services that are sought out by your customers.

Read news about other industries and pay attention to trends, ideas, ads and marketing campaigns.  Don’t dismiss these ideas simply because they’re not in your industry.  One just might lead to a gold mine because it is from outside your business.  I think the banking industry started the drive-up window, but it is now used by fast-food, dry cleaners, pharmacies, and others.  Tupperware started the home sales party idea and now look at all the things sold that way! 

 I’ll bet that somewhere outside your business and industry is an idea that could revolutionize your profits.  Look around and see what great ideas you can recycle…

(By the way, being aware of what happens in other industries is important to all entrepreneurs.  That’s why I think it’s so important that your business coach work within different industries!)