What Are Your Intentions?

“Excuse me gentlemen, but what exactly are your intentions?” Tom Hanks as Captain Jim Lovell, Apollo 13

As business coaches, we are constantly working with people to craft their intentions for their businesses. It’s surprising how few people have put serious thought into what they want to get out of their businesses or their careers. One of the first things we do as coaches is drill down to the specifics of what people want.

“I want to make a lot of money.” “I want to work fewer hours.” “I want to sell the business.”

These are all understandable ideas, but they are not specific intentions. You need to think about exactly how much money you want to make. Are you wanting to make enough to retire? To put kids through college? To pay off debt? How much money is enough? Be specific about what you want to make.

How many hours is “fewer”? Twenty-five hours a week? Thirty? And if you want to sell your business, how much do you want to sell it for?

We ask our clients to come up with three big intentions for their businesses. These intentions need to be something unprecedented, something they don’t already know how to do. And they need to be specific.

Once you get specific about your intentions, you can start using them as tools to that will drive all the actions and decisions you make in your business. Your intentions become the top of the mountain that you are going to climb. Stand at the top of that mountain and ask yourself how you got there. What resources did you need to do to accomplish your intentions? More hours in sales? More employees? New computers? Whatever it is, start doing it. Set a timeline for accomplishing your intentions and make sure you have specific and measurable benchmarks along the way to track your progress.

Do you need help creating intentions for your business? Do you need someone to hold you accountable for those intentions? We’d be happy to help. We’ve worked with thousands of people over the years to help them deliver on their intentions and win the game of business.

Are you ready to win?

Your Second-Best Friend

“Winning has always meant much to me, but winning friends has meant the most.” Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American Golf Champion

In sales, it can be hard to get your foot in the door with new customers. Too often, we hear “I’m happy with my current supplier,” as the door slowly starts to close on us.

My colleague Mary Mullenhoff has an excellent strategy for keeping your foot in that door long enough to get some business. Mary coaches people to be the “second-best friend”, the alternate supplier who can fill the gaps that the lead supplier leaves open.

When a prospect raves about the current provider, simply say, “That’s great! I’ve heard of XYZ Company, and I’m glad they’re doing a good job for you. Are there any items that XYZ doesn’t provide you that I could offer? I’d like the opportunity to be your second source for some products. That way, you’re protected in case XYZ has a shortage.”

There’s nothing wrong with being a second source. In fact it’s a great position to be in. It’s a way to show good customer service, and grow relationships within companies that are in your target market. Chances are there’s something your competition can’t provide that your prospect wants. Do your research and be ready to offer some options that might complete your prospect’s inventory. Maybe you have some shipping or service options on certain things that your client might need in specific situations.

Whatever you can do to be a supplier, do it! Then build on that relationship with good service and a quality product. If you are a service provider, offer to be a second opinion on their current service. Offer to update them on current trends through your newsletter. Be clear that you’re not trying to upset the apple cart if they are happy with their primary supplier, you are giving them additional options.

One can never have too many friends. When you make inroads as a second-best friend, you’re putting yourself in a position to win more sales and more clients for the long term.

Are you ready to win?

What Would a 20% Increase in Sales Mean to You?

Are you:

• Tired of Never Closing Deals?
• Looking for Better Qualified Leads?
• Intimidated by Sales Conversations?
• Wondering How to Stand Out from the Crowd?
• Interested in a 20%-30% Increase in Sales?

Join us for a FREE 60-minute sales training event that will forever change your approach to the sales process!

The coaches at Possibilities Unlimited will guide you through this “taste of sales training” and explain how you can win the game of sales. We look at who you are being when you sell, and work to shift your thinking about your sales process.

Sales is a game, and if you don’t know how to play by the rules, it’s a hard game to win. During this call we will show you how to expand your pool of possibilities and set yourself on a path toward a significant increase in sales.

This FREE conference call is an introduction to Sales2Win:

• Meet the Coaches
• Learn the Approach and Thinking Behind Winning the Game of Sales
• Get Feedback to Improve Your Performance

Wednesday, June 23rd
3:00 pm PST
Please RSVP to Ralph@Consulting2Win.com for call-in number.