By Jeff Blackman, J.D., CSP, CPAE
In today’s economic flux, what do you do when your people or members wonder, “How do I stay motivated, create new business, generate profits and take care of current customers?”
To help them move forward, here are 19 quick, inspirational ideas you can use:
1. If you’re a leader, lead! Your folks look to you for guidance and a game plan for the future.
2. If you’re a salesperson, sell! Your customers, clients and prospects still have problems to solve, needs to fill and dreams to realize. So help them achieve the preceding with your products and services, and most important, your skills, talent and expertise.
3. If you’re a service pro, serve! Empathy, compassion, listening and caring are never optional.
4. Control what you can control. Stop worrying about all the other stuff. I’m not oblivious to newspaper headlines or broadcast news teasers, but information or data isn’t as important as what you choose to do with it.
5. Develop a renewed commitment, purpose and desire to help decision-makers. If you don’t, somebody else will.
6. Today, someone will land a new client, acquire a new customer or become an even better “rainmaker.” It might as well be your team or members.
7. Ask yourself “Am I willing to do what I haven’t done to get what I haven’t yet achieved?”
8. Accept that the future is filled with uncertainty and unknown. Yet what is certain and known is that you can influence your future with your present choices and actions.
9. Winners don’t blame, bury their heads in the sand, hide in their office or spew meaningless rah-rah drivel. They attack with transparent reality. Meaning, they identify specific challenges and obstacles, then solve them.
10. Be ruthless about your expenses, yet know there’s a significant difference between “cost reduction” and “results reduction.” Meaning, don’t slash a penny if it’ll reduce the quality of your product, service, membership or experience. If you do, it will hurt your business relationships, results and revenue.
11. Invest in new technology, innovation and ways to do things better, faster, smarter. Hire pros, advisers or speakers who know stuff that you and your people don’t. Learn. Adapt. Apply.
12. Be decisive and take action. Don’t talk. Do! You’re not compensated for intent. You’re compensated for results.
13. Realize that membership or business-growth is about acquisition, satisfaction and retention. Always be on the prowl for new folks to help. Yet take great care of current “customers.” Satisfy them and retain them. It’s more profitable.
14. Know that value is still a powerful, competitive differentiator, and that others will pay for. So articulate and convey it.
15. Don’t fall prey to fear. It turns the courageous into cowards. If you want to climb to a higher step or emerge victorious, you may have to pursue a path never taken.
16. Communicate with clarity and conviction to your people, your members and your marketplace. Define expectations. Seek and get clarification, understanding and commitment.
17. Create a calendar for results. You need to know what to do, by when and for whom.
18. Ask yourself, “What can I do today that will have an immediate, positive and profitable impact on my business/association?”
19. Believe. If you don’t, nobody else will. While it’s true that tough times call for tough people, those who are tough are among the best prepared, best trained and best believers.
With what’s before you, can you do it?
I know, you know…
That YOU too… can do it!
Jeff Blackman is a Hall of Fame speaker, author, success coach, broadcaster and lawyer. His clients call him a business-growth specialist. If you hire speakers, please contact Jeff at 847.998.0688 or jeff@jeffblackman.com. And visit jeffblackman.com to learn more about his other business-growth tools and to subscribe to his free e-letter, The Results Report. Jeff’s bestselling books include “Stop Whining! Start Selling!” and “Peak Your Profits!” You can also stay connected with Jeff via LinkedIn and Twitter: @BlackmanResults.
