May 15

Giving negativity a rest

Posted in Communication, Employees, Teamwork

I recently read an article about how to stay motivated at work and one of the tips was to neutralize negative triggers. If you’re stuck in traffic and going to be late for a meeting or other appointment, you can either decide to add to your problem by not only being late, but also being frustrated and in a bad mood, or you can use your extra time to come up with a damage control strategy to address your tardiness. There’s definitely some benefit to staying positive. Ever been around a friend, family member or coworker who’s always negative about everything? It’s exhausting to be around that all the time and probably even more exhausting for the person expelling all that negativity.

 

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May 14

What are Mondays to you?

Posted in Uncategorized

Remember the Garfield cartoon and how he hated Mondays? Instead of Friday the 13th, he dreaded Monday the 13th.

Mondays are either the best or worst part of your week.  When Monday comes, are you laying in bed, hitting the snooze button to postpone getting to work? Or, are you jumping out of bed five minutes before the alarm sounds because you are so excited to start your work week?

If you live in the former, find something that ignites your passion. You’ll be better at what you do and much, much happier. And then you’ll love Mondays and every other day of the week.

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May 9

Clarity

Posted in Uncategorized

I was at an event last week and a speaker was talking about the importance of clarity to an organization’s success.

Do you get it?

Does your team get it?

Do your dealers or reps get it?

Do your customers get it?

If so, then you have clarity. If not, make it clear. Otherwise, you’ll fail.

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May 8

Is it a good fit?

Posted in Communication

It’s a great thing when a customer says they want to do business with you. But depending on what industry you’re in, not every customer is a good fit. As tempting as it is to take the sale right away, it’s worth asking a few questions first. A good guide to use is IBM’s BANT sales qualification approach, which stands for Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline. This is a good framework for the questions to ask when determining whether a customer is a good fit for your business. Can the customer afford your product or service? Does the customer have the authority to make the purchase? Does your product or service really fit the customer’s needs? Can you produce what the customer needs within the time he or she needs it? Better to ask these questions upfront, before you get too far into it and realize one of these key elements is going to throw off the whole business.

 

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May 7

Will you commit to it?

Posted in Uncategorized

I once heard someone say, “Americans will do anything to lose weight except diet and exercise.” Which is funny, because we know that is the way to lose weight. But, like in business, what seems like a good idea in theory and what we are actually willing to commit to do can be two very different things.

If an idea sounds really good and you immediately say to yourself, “…but it will never work.” Or, “…but it will take too much time, effort, etc.” Then the idea may very well be good but you won’t commit to it. If you can overcome your internal objections, and you know the idea will work, then commit to make the change.  That’s the only way anything will work.

There is no silver bullet or magic pill in business or in dieting.

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May 3

Can’t handle me

Posted in Communication, Customer relations, Dealer communications

Flo Rida says it (or sings it) best,  “You know I know how to make’em stop and stare as I zone out. The club can’t even handle me right now. Watchin’ you watchin’ me, I go all out.” Stay with me…

Communication, whether on the sales floor or on the dance floor, needs to be conducted with confidence, grab the audience’s attention and allow you to do your thing.  People are only watching if you’re doing it really well or really bad. No one’s watching if you’re boring.

At LaBov & Beyond, we are all about passion, bravery and joy–being passionate about what we do, brave enough to try something new, and having joy when we succeed. That joyous celebration leads to more passion, bravery and confidence.

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May 2

When the glory days are gone

Posted in Branding

Sometimes in business, you own the world. You are known for It and you own the category for It. Nothing but blue skies ahead. But then something changes. The new kid on the block can now make It just as good for less money. Or worse, he re-imagines what It can do and comes out with a totally new product that turns the category on its head.

So now what do you do? You can’t stay in business reliving the glory days. It’s time to look at what you do, what inspired you initially to create It, and channel that passion and creativity into new products or services and regain your leadership or create a new category to lead.

At times like these, it’s critical to go in your own direction instead of trying to create a me-too product of the one that stole your thunder.

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May 1

Great customer service really matters

Posted in advertising, Branding, Communication, Customer loyalty, Customer relations

If you’ve ever seen Miracle on 34th Street, you probably remember the part when a child told the Macy’s store Santa what he wanted for Christmas and Santa told him he’d get the toy. The child’s mother gets upset because she’s looked all over town and no one has the toy for sale. Santa refers her to Gimbels, a competitive store, where she’d be able to buy the toy. While many Macy’s employees thought Santa would be fired for sure, wise Mr. Macy saw the goodwill that was spreading as a result of Santa’s innocent suggestion. Customers were flocking to Macy’s because they put the customers’ needs first. A similar thing happened to me when I ordered a dress from one of my favorite clothing catalogs. The dress was back-ordered and then back-ordered again. After emailing customer service, they actually sent me a link to another store that had the same dress available to ship immediately. Since I needed it for an upcoming engagement, I kindly thanked them for their help, canceled my back-ordered dress, ordered it from the other store and the dress shipped the next morning.  Although they lost the sale of a dress, they won a very loyal customer for their outstanding customer service and for putting my needs above their profit margin.

 

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Apr 30

Go ahead and take your time. I know I will.

Posted in Uncategorized

Customers held hostage. It happens every day. The waitress drops the bill on the table as she breezes by, “Take your time,” she says as she disappears for ten minutes. The dealer waves from afar, “Look around and let me know if you have any questions,” as he walks on to do something else.  Customers are just left to mosey about or sit and wait until someone decides to get around to taking care of them.

This is your competition. Knowing this should make you feel really good. If you just take care of your customers in a timely manner, you are head and shoulders above many of your competitors. All of the great work you do and your great products will be forgotten if you take way too long or make customers chase you down to get what they need.

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Apr 27

Why they keep coming back

Posted in Clients, Communication

Ever stop for a moment to ask why clients and customers keep coming back to your business time and again? In an Inc. Magazine article, Slingshot SEO describes its effort to identify why its clients renew their contracts with the company. While things like ROI were suggested as the top reasons, the team decided to dig deeper and found that the strength of the relationship with the client was the largest factor. ROI and other elements came after the relationship in order of importance. Maintaining those client relationships can be challenging in today’s busy, go-go world. Many use tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to supplement the relationship between in-person meetings, conference calls and emails. Whatever methods you choose to use, paying close enough attention to growing and fostering the client relationship could go a long way in increasing repeat business and loyalty.

 

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