Business Book Summaries

Few sales professionals, consultants and small business owners take the time to plan the strategy for their businesses. Many have a general idea of what they want to accomplish but very few actually identify the specific action steps they will need to take in order to achieve their goals. You have to outline your goals and how you plan to get there.

When you establish your annual goals, you have to ask yourself how you will accomplish those goals. This forces you to plan the tactics, strategies, and actions needed in order to achieve your targets.

Consider using a monthly tracking sheet – setting specific monthly goals, planning what action you will take to generate new business, and tracking your progress. Engage in at least ten different marketing activities each week, including networking, prospecting, cold calling, sending mailers, speaking, and so on and so forth.

Plan your business depending on what you want to accomplish and what is important to you. Most businesses likely have more than one product or service. Breaking down your sales into specific categories makes sense. You can also determine the products or services I should stop selling because they don’t generate very good sales. Remember that you can have incredible sales but still go out of business.

Controlling expenses is a critical aspect of running a business regardless of the size. All large organizations budget expenses but most independent business owners “wing it” and pay the bills as they come in. If you want to increase your revenues, you need to know how much it will cost you to generate your targeted sales.

How much free time do you want for yourself? It is very easy to get sucked into the vortex of running a business; you might forget to take a vacation or personal time to recharge your batteries. This signifies a commitment and allows you to plan your business around these personal days.

Lastly, people who invest in themselves consistently outperform those who don’t. Identify the skills that will help you become more successful. Determine what books, programs, courses, or people can help you learn these skills and take action.

Planning does take time. However, it is time well invested. Make the time in your life to create a plan for next year’s business. Review it regularly and make the necessary changes as you progress.

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Every client, every situation is, of course, different. However, regardless of the details of the situation, if you aren’t getting the response you want, or expect, you need to look at your message and – just as important – at how you are expressing that message.

No word choice is unimportant. The shirt you wear, the chair you sit in, the thank-you note you write afterward should all be carefully considered, and ultimately compound the impression of someone who’s calm, confident, and in-command.

The strategies offered in "How to WOW", the new book from Frances Cole Jones, come from a spectrum of modalities. Aside from the general principles, the information offered is yours to pick and choose from. There are no “rules” because each comes to the table with a unique set of attributes and circumstances. And more important, each is smart enough to know what will work for them and their circumstances: what will help give you the confidence to speak your mind in a meeting, motivate your team under deadline, or negotiate your business deal over pasta puttanesca.

You will know you’ve succeeded when you begin to doubt your doubts — to be confident in your confidence. Because when you are, you are free to be enthusiastic, committed, and authentic.

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As corporations continue to merge, jobs disappear and industries are shunted offshore, we need conversation and communication more than ever before. Networks of loyal customers and relationships become pivotal. We must learn to pay attention to projects, to details, to trends, and most of all to people.

In the early 1990's, in a study that has been discussed many times by many people, Dr. Thomas Harrell of Stanford University studied a group of MBAs a decade after their graduation to identify the traits of those who were most successful He found that grade point average had no bearing on success. The one trait he identified in common among the successful people was their verbal fluency.

Conversation is the basis of communication. It establishes rapport and connects us to our colleagues, clients, cronies, competitors, co-workers, subordinates, superiors, and friends. It begins with small talk and that leads to bigger, more serious talk.

There is only one question that matters: Do you like people? Liking people is the heart of good conversation. If you find people nice, helpful, interesting, or informative – you will want to talk with them. You've already connected with them, and scored points.

If you answered no, read on anyway! Once you learn to converse more comfortably and start getting positive responses, you may change your mind. When you feel more confident in conversation, relating to people becomes much easier and more pleasant. That attitude leads to success in both business and personal relationships.

None of us wants to be confused with those who play the tough, hard-to-get "game" of monosyllabic responses. We rarely hear anyone speak glowingly of these folks.

Some people sneer at "small talk" and dismiss it as banal or trivial. In these competitive, urgency-addicted times, we have people so focused on their agendas, their quotas and their bottom-line that they forget that the words we say contribute to our connections with clients and colleagues. They take pride in being urgent, get-to-the-point, terse people – people who have "more important things on their mind" than small talk. Life and work flow more smoothly when we are comfortable with conversation and, more importantly, know how to make others feel comfortable as well.

Other people can't be bothered with small talk because it's "a waste of time." Saving nanoseconds by eliminating connections with people makes no sense at all – in business or in our personal lives.

People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Conversation, even casual conversation, makes sense. It helps us know our clients, potential clients, colleagues, co-workers, and friends.

Small talk is a way to connect even in situations where big talk may not always be appropriate. Small talk is in that sense the biggest talk we do. It builds, develops, and nurtures relationships. Conversation is how we strengthen the safety net of people who make up our personal and professional networks.

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Do you have a strategic marketing team? It may seem like added complication and cost, but it’s really vital to be able to have one of these teams.

Unlike some many other operational groups, it does not have to be complicated to set up and run. To begin with chose three to five business owners from within your industry, people whose companies are well outside of your marketing areas. Getting them on board may take a little arm twisting, but when you promise to be on their strategic marketing team they'll most likely agree to get on board with you.

Based on their experiences they'll provide input to help you get started on your strategic marketing – and you'll reciprocate. They will ask tough questions and provide welcome and unwelcome feedback from their perspectives. Their feedback will include shared experiences, industry knowledge as well as totally different approaches that have worked successfully for them.

To begin the first of many strategic team sessions, you'll be identifying specifically what you want to accomplish. Be prepared for some meaningful discussions around this process, accurately identifying and agreeing on your targets, benchmarks and the definition of success in advance is critical to keeping the process moving forward and on track. Every decision steps on somebody's toes, at least a tiny bit – and unless they are universally willing to set aside their internal issues and get together on the big picture, they can stop your progress dead in its tracks.

Be sensitive to their concerns and comments. Your people from the loading dock to the board room must be 100% on board or all your strategic marketing team's efforts will be a waste of time.

You and the strategic advisory team of your peers must consider how each element of your strategic marketing plan impacts your organization. This is an never ending story – your peer to peer strategic advisory team will meet continually. The topics discussed in these strategy sessions will expand to every area of your organization, creating a very real teams of advocates who will help you focus on your continued future.

A peer to peer collaboration process removes the number one problem faced by today's business owners, making decisions in isolation with no one to trust to talk to, who will not hold it against them in some way.

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Do you or did you have a traditional business or professional practice? Is it successful? Unless you were born under a lucky star, you probably did lots of planning. A business plan, a marketing plan, maybe even a succession plan for what to do with your business when you were through.

You can have a terrific site, with lots of bells and whistles and if people don’t know you exist, you never get any visitors, let alone customers.

Planning is the key to success in business. Amazon.com had a plan, Bill Gates had a plan, eDiets had a plan, and I’ll bet they still do. Once a business launches on the net, you will need a marketing plan to be successful. Your biggest challenge will be to find time to plan. Unlike a business, generally created to get financial backing from investors, Netpreneurs create marketing plans for themselves. Who are your customers? How will you promote your business?

Now create your Website marketing plan.

Take a notebook or idea book and write the following: your vision, mission strategies, goals and the time frame you wish to accomplish these goals. It will help you stay focused. What is your vision for your business? Your vision is what you want your web site to accomplish. Write your vision statement in your notebook. The vision statement for my flower shop is to “Make a reasonable profit via the Internet by providing a quality product, delivering exceptional service, at a price my customers will pay.”

What are your goals? If the goals are too easy, you are not getting the most out of your planning process. And you could be losing money. Can double your customer base in 6 months? What steps do you need to take to achieve your goals? How much do you have to sell to achieve your goals? You must first know your profit margin to determine this figure. What are your marketing strategies? How will you reach your market? Are you going to use search engine optimization, email, newsletters, networking, advertising on related sites, advertising in trade magazines, or write an article to submit to online publications?

Participate in online forums, message boards and newsgroups. Include your URL (Internet address) in your signature file.

What is the time-frame for accomplishing your goals? Create a time-line for every goal in your notebook. Next to each goal, write down the starting and ending dates of when you plan to accomplish that goal as well as what type omarketing strategies you are using.

Are you keeping track of your marketing results? If you are doing any advertising whether it is online or offline, track the results. You can track online advertising using ad tracking software such as adtrackz.com, to track all the links you place online. Analyze web site statistics to find out how visits found you. For offline advertising, place codes or words in your advertising to keep track. To learn how customers found us, we use a numeric code on all advertising/marketing materials.

How much money did the marketing strategy cost? How much money did you take in? Subtract the second figure from the first and that is your profit (or loss).

Add new strategies to the mix.

And stay focused on your goals. Nothing feels better than accomplishing a goal.

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If you're going to be putting up a team, here are three skills you need to develop in your staff. When developed, these skills allow the free flow of ideas and effective interactions that are the foundation of a strong team. Rather than a simple shared experience, the key to a good teambuilding event is teaching members these three core skills.

The first personal skill to develop is confidence, or personal power. Personal power is essentially a person's ability to overcome problems and maximize their effectiveness. In a teamwork sense, confidence's real importance is in how it supports and allows the next two skills to develop.

The second personal skill to develop is trust. Traditional team building events address the concept of trust, but usually do it in a way that does not translate well to a professional environment. Consider a rope course exercise where one member climbs high up while other members support and anchor the ropes. I would not trust all of those people to listen to and respect ideas that I had in the office place. One form of trust does not imply another. To be effective, any trust exercise must relate to communication and respect in a similar environment to work.

Trust and confidence are vital to supporting the third core skill for effective teams, control-sharing. Two people working alone will come up with two separate sets of ideas. People like to be in control. Willingly relinquishing control is a scary thing, but a person must do this to let go of an idea – give up the control he has by virtue of the fact that it is his idea. This is where trust and confidence come into play. Look at a 'shared experience' team building event where participants must work together to achieve a goal (build a pyramid, vote together, pass something down a line, etc). The beauty of the three skills I have addressed is that if a company has two groups, both filled with members who possess these skills, then members can switch teams without a large loss in the team feel. Because all three of these skills are personal and individual, a new team will not need to go through a shared experience to trust each other and work together.

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The new workplace is fraught with personal traps that can ensnare you along your path to success. If you find yourself caught up in these traps, perplexed because your tried-and-true success strategies aren’t working anymore, or because the skills you perfected and the place you created for yourself are no longer valuable, then “Winning at Work”, a new book by employee assistance professionals Mel Sandler and Muriel Gray, is a must-read.

Describing numerous personal traps that can foil all of us at one time or another, the authors show you to reassess what is expected of you and what you need to do to get there – guiding the way through major organizational change and workplace pressures.

This book offers powerful strategies for those who find that work just isn’t what it used to be – and that what used to work at work simply doesn’t anymore.

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Networking is an interesting thing. Whether it's participation in a leads group or attending 'networking' events, how you approach will determine how successful you will be. Energy breeds energy. At the same time, if you aren't careful you can find yourself networking all day everyday. Beware. Just because a group is big and the people are nice, doesn't mean it's the best for you and your business.

You will also find business events conducted throughout the month on various topics. Between seminars, workshops, and awards ceremonies the opportunities are seemingly endless. Likewise, timing is everything. Case in point: A few months ago I connected with a man who offers business search services to individuals. I've kept in contact with him through email, social networking, and the occasional phone call. It's genuine, and natural. I didn't spend a lot of time trying to find connections for him. It's mainly relationship building and relationships take time. When you approach networking as a chance to build relationships with people and create a resource pool, you'll find that it is much more effective.

This same philosophy applies to membership in a leads group. There are many groups out there that have quotas for leads. Which would you rather spend your time on?

There are still people who join leads groups with and without quotas that give garbage instead of leads. Those people don't understand networking at all. What leads group should you join? Doing your research along with really understanding your target market will help guide you toward the best events – for you.

Networking bears the greatest results when natural relationships are born and cultivated. Over time you will enjoy continued benefits.

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Strategic Planning is the one business tool, which if done right, can make your business essentially immune to business cycles. The key part of that sentence is "if done right".

Strategic Planning is, at its core, a method for predicting the future. Strategy is the game plan to create your future – to win – even in the face of resource constraints, or intense competition. Strategy maximizes reward and minimizes risk, leverages resources, provides context, meaning, value, direction, and alignment for tactical actions, and leads to long-term success.

When the competitive rules change, and they will change, the followers must do all they can to adapt, just to stay in business. A major benefit of strategic planning is to help your business see the big picture, especially from a marketing point of view. By creating good strategic plans, you will be better able to understand the need for timely changes in your marketing approach and product mix. Strategic planning requires setting clear goals and objectives, and meeting those goals and objectives during specified time frames.

Why? If the future you predict is wrong, all of your right actions will still doom you to failure.

Thoroughly understand your market and your business environment, and determine whether any potential "Market Disrupters" are on the horizon. Create a strategy that has the effect of changing the market in your favor. Create Strategic Flexibility in your business and marketing plans.

Strategic Flexibility is the key. This kind if thinking is particularly relevant both in creating your strategy, and in managing and monitoring the implementation of your strategy.

Once you have those actions in place, with systems, processes, metrics, and exit plans (because all strategies end), you can begin to manage strategic uncertainty, overcome business cycles, and prepare your business to be the one that prospers, even in times of recession.

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Are you wondering what the future holds for your business? Whether you want to predict your future or prescribe an outcome of your choosing, you'll have plenty of company!

Throughout history, we humans have tried many ways to predict the future, from reading palms to stargazing. Today, we refer to these as descriptive methods when we attempt to describe objectively what the future will be or could be.

On the other hand, prescriptive methods focus on determining what the future should be. These techniques can help us clarify our preferences and values so we can create a vision of what we would like to see in our lives, businesses, or communities.

Once we understand what we would like the future to represent, we're better able to take the actions required to implement it. Ideally, that future will align with our passions, gifts, and what we (or our companies) can really be the best at doing. This article suggests a two-stage process for achieving that goal.

First, Identify Your "Hedgehog Concept" So, what can you be the best in the world (or at least in your community) at doing? This thought-provoking reflection is one of many from Jim Collins' "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don't."

Collins' team examined 1,435 companies to see which ones made substantial gains in profitability and sustained those improvements over 15 years or more. Since the 1970s, only 11 companies had risen from mediocrity to greatness and stayed there — topping many other prosperous firms that lacked the same staying power.

Of eight characteristics these companies shared, all held an unshakable adherence to becoming the best in the world at whatever they did. Each company committed to doing only those things and nothing else. That sometimes meant dropping their core businesses to pursue other things at which they could become the best in the world.

Collins and his team coined the term "hedgehog concept" to reflect a single-minded determination and focus that, similar to that of the hedgehog animal, attempts to do only one thing really well, such as curl up and roll. A hedgehog concept actually represents the intersection of three areas:

1) What you're most passionate about 2) An understanding of what you could be the best at doing, and 3) A metric that drives your economic engine and helps you measure results.

Keep in mind that according to Collins, this concept is not a goal, strategy, or plan, but an understanding of what you can and can't be the best at doing. Until you develop your hedgehog concept, you won't know your true vision, mission, or purpose.

Next, Define Your "Business Success Criteria" Do you have a crystal clear idea of the types of business undertakings that align with your gifts, talents, passions, and strengths? In that same context, have you thought about whether your business can be the very best in the world at doing those things?

If the answers are "yes," you are in an excellent position to choose the ventures that can give you the greatest satisfaction and results.

If you're not yet totally clear about the answers to these questions, developing a set of "business success criteria" can enable you to select worthwhile endeavors with much deeper insight, and thus set the conditions for successfully pursuing them. A hedgehog concept thereby represents part of the formula you can devise to identify and choose among your very best options.

Why is this so important? It's not uncommon for people to wander into businesses, projects, and professions opportunistically, which means that they often select the next available and convenient thing that comes along. At times, this may be necessary for financial reasons. But unless we understand our underlying success criteria, we might not recognize the options that truly fuel and inspire us — those that are best suited to our passions and strengths.

Some of your criteria could be practical considerations, and others more lofty ideals. But all of your criteria will be essential to achieving balance, fulfillment, prosperity, and higher contribution in your life.

In conclusion, a set of carefully crafted success criteria fueled by a potent hedgehog concept provides an unbeatable strategic advantage, and an excellent direction-finder for prescribing your future!

About The Author: Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is the creator of the award-winning "Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance" success program, and specializes in helping people align their life passions with their business purpose. To learn more about her tools and resources and sign up for other free tips like these, visit her site at http://LearnShareProsper.com

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