Time Outs - Staying in the Game During Summer Vacation Season

“The one man team is a complete and total myth.” – Don Shula, Former Head Coach, Miami Dolphins

It’s that time of year again…everyone is taking their summer vacation and spending time away from the office. Everyone, that is, except business owners and managers who are afraid that things will fall apart if they leave.

At Possibilities Unlimited, we work with people to structure their businesses to run smoothly when they are not there. It doesn’t mean for a minute that the boss or owner is not important or indispensible. It means that any well-run business should be prepared to keep moving forward when the key players are not around. Having these strategies in place is necessary, not just for vacation season, but for emergencies and unpredictable circumstances.

Here are some key ideas for setting your business up for when you are not there:

Time is Everything: Your vacation has to be scheduled into the calendar. Your business projects have to be scheduled into your calendar. Your calendar will make it possible for you to take your vacation because you will have scheduled a time for everything that needs to happen while you’re gone. Production deadlines, accounting deadlines, sales reports, all these things need to be clearly mapped out in your calendar. Assign tasks to other people to be handled while you’re away, or reschedule the task for a time before or after your vacation. It really is that simple, as long as you have everything in your calendar and leave detailed instructions for your staff.

Written Production Procedures: Don’t leave your employees guessing as to what’s expected of them while you’re gone. Meet with employees and discuss written guidelines as to what they need to accomplish in your absence.

Inform Clients: Touch base with your major clients and let them know your schedule. Make sure they know who to contact when you’re not available. Address any concerns in advance as to projects that have delivery dates during your vacation.

Provide Backup: Make sure your employees know who is handling your duties in your absence. Clearly define the interim responsibilities and reporting structure. Your business coach is an excellent resource for questions and concerns while you are away. A good coach can provide support to keep departments functioning at peak performance.

Enjoy!: You are no good to your business or your family if you are too focused on one or the other. Everyone needs time away, time to refuel and time to rest. It’s often in those down times that inspiration happens. Your business coach can steer you away from overwhelm at the thought of taking time for yourself to confidence that your team has got you covered.

We all have different ideas of what “having fun” means. A winning business allows for vacations and having fun within a structure of established procedures and timelines.

Are you ready to win?

Cold Calling 2 Win

“My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging." - Hank Aaron - American Baseball Player

Successful cold calling is dependent on your getting-started attitude. The law of large numbers says, the more "no's" you get out of the way, the closer you are to getting to "yes!" The best way to succeed is to be prepared and to keep swinging.

There are four basic elements to an effective cold calling campaign:

1. Qualify your prospects: Begin with a list and qualify your prospects; make sure this list includes businesses that need your products or services and can afford to buy them. Attain key contacts who can make buying decisions.


2. Be prepared: Do your homework on the company and the industry. Know their key competitors and research some best practices that can add value to their business. Then create a script with which you feel comfortable and include a brief introduction and an interesting third party story about a company similar to theirs who is already using your products or services.


3. Turn cold calls into warm calls: Do a relationship map and find someone in your company or at another client’s organization who may know the prospect. Get a referral and find commonality. When you have common ground, you know the same people, or you can talk about something you know interests them, people are more warmed up to the call. Approach them on neutral turf by attending networking events or trade shows where they may be present. Find out if your prospect plans to attend and make it a point to run into them. Provide some value: give them a free assessment or a promotional item that would be of great interest to the buyer, something that will catch their attention.


4. Follow up: Timing is very important, don’t let too much time pass between that first meeting and your next phone call. Follow up when you said you would, but don't flood their machine with messages. Keep calling until they answer the phone. When you want to schedule an appointment, offer a specific time; don’t leave it open-ended. Ask for only 10 minutes of time to make your pitch. People are very busy, and your call was likely an unplanned interruption. Make it short and sweet and show them you respect their time. During the conversation, find their “hot buttons.” Continue to schedule future brief conversations so they feel they know you, find value in your product and are ready to buy.

Once you’ve got them on the phone and they are intrigued, remember the 80/20 rule. Listen 80% of the time and speak only 20% of the time. People want to buy from people who they feel understand them, their issues and can provide value. They love to speak about themselves, so give them plenty of opportunity. Ask key questions that will reveal how they like to buy and show them how your product fits those specific needs. Keep swinging, and before you know it, you'll have a growing list of paying customers, and that is a recipe for winning.

Are you ready to win?

Production & Delivery - Running With The Ball

"You are never really playing an opponent. Your are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits that is real joy." - Arthur Ashe, American Tennis Player

Production and Delivery – this is where your company runs with the ball. This is where you make your product, develop your service, and get it out to the public. You’ve got to have an energized, efficient production and delivery system, or you’re never going to win the game of business.

The Four Elements of Production and Delivery are:

· Measurements of Performance
· Resources
· Procedures
· Team

Measurements of Performance are essential to any business operation. They provide the specifications to employees so they can know if they are winning in their job. If you give someone a task, and you do not define what you want, that person has no means of determining what will satisfy you. It’s like going into a restaurant and asking the waitress to go get you something to eat. Who knows what she might bring from the kitchen? You do not want to take that chance. By defining your measurements of performance, you eliminate the guesswork. The specific, measurable results clearly explain what you expect and give the employees benchmarks for success.

Resources are the building blocks you use to produce your product. They include your facilities, equipment, inventory, labor and management. You combine these ingredients in various amounts to create your product. You must manage each carefully. You must control the purchase and distribution of each. How well you manage the cost and use of these resources determines the profit of your business. Setting up systems to control, manage and reduce the cost of resources is a great way to increase profits.

Procedures set up the flow of your business. When you move from a business that has all the information in people’s heads to one that has the procedures on paper, you will have matured into a company with the potential for more growth. It also creates potential for a business that can grow without the owner there on a day-to-day basis. That is the sign of a growing business. Putting your procedures in writing is often the limiting factor. Once companies take this action, the door opens up to a lot of new opportunities. More people can be cross trained to more jobs, creating more efficiency. Employees can deliver a more uniform product that meets the company’s written standards.

Team is what is present when your company is aligned on a purpose. People work together as a high-performance team when they are aligned on a common goal. If you look at your business as a sports team, you will see that all the elements that are present in sports are present in your business. Goals, rules, scoreboards, penalties, coaches, celebrations, winning, losing, and deciding what to do next time. You must create team spirit in your company to get the turbo boost that happens when people work together. When all their efforts combine the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and you win the game of business.

Are you ready to win?