The Power of Combined Training and Coaching

Before I go on with our business update this week let me just take a moment to welcome a new member to out consulting staff. His name is Sean Griffith and he is a new Senior Business Consultant with the SBA Network. Sean is also an attorney and Financial Consultant. Don't hold that against him. With over 10 years of experience he has been helping clients to achieve their goals. Send him an e-mail and introduce yourself.

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Companies spend over $375 billion every year on training and even more on coaching. Yet according to the American Society for Training and Development about "42 percent of the knowledge that professionals use to get their jobs done actually comes from their co-workers. This is called prairie-dogging--workers pop out of their cubicles to solicit information from the local expert. When a worker is consulting another worker, both workers lose productivity."

We won't even address the fact that many of these "company experts" are actually spreading the incorrect methods or techniques and that just adds to the dysfunctions that permeate many organizations today.

What if you could provide the skills that workers need to increase their performance without adversely impacting productivity?

There is. It can be accomplished by combining training with coaching.

It is easy to confuse the purpose of training and coaching. I suppose misconceptions arise due to the need for change in performance and the fact that each of these disciplines can discretely increase performance. To demonstrate the difference in a more concrete way, let's take a look at the intent of training vs. coaching in most applications:

Training

• Satisfies the knowledge gap


• Typically performed in a group setting


• Learning can occur from other participants


• A forum for harnessing enthusiasm and team motivation


• Content is based on a specified single topic


• Delivers instruction of methods and techniques


• Established period of time


• Classroom-based


• Pre-established pacing

Coaching

• Satisfies the skills gap


• One-to-one interactivity


• Typically Learning cannot occur from other participants


• A forum for harnessing enthusiasm and team motivation


• Content can be based on varying topics


• Assists participant to put methods and techniques into action


• Varying period of time


• On-the-job


• Flexible pacing

There are probably many other advantages of training or coaching when viewed as separate disciplines, yet consider the combination of providing training with coaching. When these forces are combined we are able to create an environment where habits can be changed much more rapidly.

We deliver the methods and techniques in a training environment and then ensure that they are put into practice with on-going coaching. The coaching allows team members to adapt their training experience to their specific challenges on the job. This supports effective skill-building, increases confidence and solidifies habitual change.

I am proud to say that our organization has been associated with Dale Carnegie Training for over 15 years and we have seen first-hand what combined training and coaching can do to increase the performance within an organization. You can find out more about our coaching programs at http://www.sbanetwork.org

Have a great week!

-Mark Deo

Tips on How to Find a Mentor

Mentors can help you escalate your career, boost your self-development and improve your relationships. My whole life, from an early age, I sought out mentors in many different areas of life. You can find a great mentor and here are a few tips to help you do that.

Decide what area you want help with - examine your life and determine if you want help with your career or your health or your relationships. When you know the area you want to focus on you can then begin searching for a mentor. Investigate top performers in your industry - if you want to find a career mentor, find out who are the experts in the field of expertise you want to develop. Find out where your role models hang out - check out networks, industry events and conferences to watch out for potential mentors. Spend time watching the people in the room and make note of anyone who stands out and has the "presence" you are looking for. Investigate official mentoring programs - many organizations now have internal mentoring programs you can become a part of. If you work for yourself you can also investigate Government areas that have established mentoring programs also. Select the mentor - when you find the person you believe would be suitable, spend some time watching them in action. Ask to go along to a presentation with them or ask if you can spend a "day in the life of" them and watch what they do. Ask others opinion of your selected mentor - when you have chosen someone, ask around to find out what you can about their achievements, beliefs, values and way of operating. This will give you insight into them before you approach them about mentoring you. Approach the selected mentor - phone them or make an appointment to see them. Advise them why you want to meet and schedule time. This is an important step in the process so you can show them you respect their time and you are committed to dong the right thing. Have an agenda - when you meet have an outline of what you would like to discuss. Your agenda should include why you want them to mentor you, how long it is for and what you hope to gain during that time. If they agree to mentor you, you can then work out how you can also support them. Set up an agreement - if you both decide to proceed, set up an agreement with guidelines for timeframe, contact boundaries, full honesty etc. If you would like to know more about this check out "How to be a great Mentee". Fulfill your mentee commitments - always turn up to meetings prepared, always complete any assignments or tasks given to you from your mentor and always look for opportunities to support your mentor. When you find a good mentor it can change your life. This article was written by our friend and partner, Neen James, a leading productivity expert from Australia. She has worked with many organizations to boost their performance through communications and message management. She has numerous articles on productivity available on her website at www.neenjames.com. Have a great week! I hope that this "Business Update" has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com Mark Deo Print this article.

The Miscommunication Tool

I don't know about you, but I'm spending more and more time with email every year. It used to be that email was used for sending quick messages. Now people are carrying on entire relationships (personal and business) using email. It's not unusual for a client to request to be communicated with exclusively by email. When this happens, how do we truly understand their motives? How can we urge them to take action? What can we do to ensure we are being understood and how can we make sure we in fact do understand what the client is communicating? I would venture to say that email is as much a tool of Miscommunication as it is communication itself!

While some authors and trainers talk about email strategies and tactics, one of the best resources on using email more effectively is the book Email Power by Steven Griffith. I interviewed Steven on our show this week and you can listen to it by clicking below:

Email Power Interview Segment 1

Email Power Interview Segment 2

Email Power Interview Segment 3

Email Power utilizes The Language Response System, a process for analyzing and determining the communication style of the individual you're corresponding with-in less than 60 seconds! Griffiths talks about how we can identify and speak in any of the four styles of communication: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and digital. Human beings process and interpret information in different ways depending on which sense system is dominant in their brain. While most people "mix and match" one style usually dominates.

• Visual communicators take their world in by what they see. They talk in terms of "view," "vision," "show," and "appears." A visual person is interested in how your solution, your proposal or your presentation "looks" to them.

• Auditory communicators take their world in by how things sound. They talk in auditory terms such as "I hear you," "Talk to me," "Sounds good to me," etc. An Auditory person is interested in how your solution, your proposal, your presentation "sounds" to them.

• Kinesthetic communicators take their world in through their feelings. They transform images, words, and sounds into feelings terms such as "I have a gut feeling," "Let's get a handle on this," "I have a sense this is the right decision." A kinesthetic person is interested in how your solution, your proposal, your presentation feels to them.

• Digital communicators process and organize their world by how it makes sense in their head. Digitals usually don't have many "feeling" words in their communications. They'll "think" about your offer, "consider" the alternatives, and "formulate a response." A digital person is interested in how your solution, your proposal, your presentation if it is logical and makes sense to them.

His book contains numerous examples of how to structure emails that help us to match with the intended receiver and thereby build a better relationship.

Thanks for tuning into this weeks business update. Also, remember our upcoming Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage Course starting on July 31, 2006 where we talk about how to match with others using these styles. Additionally, our Attract More Business Program is available in a 6 CD and 186 page hardbound set now. Just go to www.attractmorebusiness.com.

Relationship Marketing

I remember my first trip to England back in the eighties. We were kicking around London looking to pass the time and spotted a "tealeaf reader." For fun we thought, "let's go check it out."

I had no idea what tealeaf reading was all about. I thought they would whip out a leave from a tree or something and start reading it like a book. What I discovered was even more incredulous.

For the Highland Scots, twists of fate were prefigured in the patterns left at the bottom of one's empty teacup. The general idea of "tealeaf reading" is to interpret the significance of an alphabetical list of the natural symbols commonly found at the bottom of a cup of tea. They would apparently predict fame, fortune and failure based on these soggy herbs.

What does this have to do with business improvement, you ask?

Let's face it; running a business is a sober undertaking. There's no place for the crystal ball, as it were. Successful business leaders must possess a set of pragmatic disciplines in order to make the necessary daily decisions in running their business. They must make very rational and logical connections based on their circumstances.

For example, they may see competitors reducing their price and think, "I need to effectively compete by lowering my price or building value." Or they look inside their company and see an unproductive sales group and think, "we need an incentive program to make people work harder and sell more." Or they may look at their product mix and notice a product or service not performing as well as others and think, "let's launch a creative promotion or advertising campaign."

These are very logical and rational responses but I don't think they are enough. Not that these decisions are incorrect, but they are only part of the story. Not being one to believe in fortune telling, I do sometimes think that business leaders can learn a thing or two from these prognosticators.

Everyone's heard about the 5 P's of Marketing: Product, Pricing, Promotion, Packaging and Positioning. Certainly all of these disciplines are important but I now realize that they are somewhat lacking in our new 21st Century.

As I've said many times, today we live in an age NOT of information or technology but of relationships. Certainly consumers are still influenced by promotions, pricing and packaging but relationships have the greatest impact over brand choices and vendor selection.

Relationships often take longer to form and carry even greater weight in the B2B world. If you think about it, the higher the cost of a product or service or the more complicated that product or service is, the more critical the relationship. This means developing a powerful relationship with a vendor or supplier who will do more than quote prices and take orders.

Therefore it is not enough for suppliers and service providers to merely REACT to client needs. In fact they must learn to become PROACTIVE in predicting customer needs. In a sense good marketers need to learn to read their customer's minds. They need to become good at "reading tea leaves."

Ultimately client's need suppliers who will help them learn to evaluate and make the right purchase decisions. This is where CRM or Customer Relationship Management can become very useful in helping to predict buying trends. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a label that has been tacked onto practically everything having to do with marketing. Like the broad field of marketing, CRM touches all aspects of marketing analysis, marketing communications, sales, and customer service.

CRM is a technique aimed at collecting information from prospects and customers about their needs, and providing information that helps them evaluate and purchase products that deliver the best possible value. Think of CRM as a process for managing the company's resources to create the best possible experience and value for customers while generating the highest possible revenue and profit for the company.

A typical CRM system uses a centralized database to store data about marketing, sales, and customer service. This gives employees a complete view of the company's relationship with each customer. This improved communication technique results in creating a one-to-one relationship of understanding each prospect's needs and showing that the company's products or services meet those needs. This encourages the prospect to select that vendor. In other words, a CRM approach helps a company implement the learning and communications techniques that demonstrate the desire of the company -- and the value to the customer -- in forming a long-lasting relationship.

For marketing to be effective, management must understand what the needs of the target audience are, which product attributes they value, and what motivations they respond to.
This requires more than creative advertising. It requires researching and understanding a target market, making products or services convenient to purchase, and giving each customer true value and satisfaction.

You may not feel the need to go out and buy a bag of tea leaves and practice your fortune telling skills, but I encourage every business owner to think about ways that you may be able to put CRM in place within your organization. The information you will gain will help you to accurately predict buying patterns and maybe tell you more about your company today as well as your customer of the future.

Productive vs. Unproductive Conflict

From time to time we feature other experts in business improvement. I am thrilled to bring you this insightful article from Dr. Victoria Simon and Dr. Holly Pedersen of Talk Works, Inc. The ladies were recently guests on my Small Business Hour and we discussed how unproductive conflict can be turned into “productive” conflict. (Yes, there is a difference). They were even able to resolve some conflict between Matt Walker and I - a miracle in itself! Check them out at www.ourtalkworks.com.

-Mark Deo

Introduction
A couple of months ago we received a call from a mid-sized Los Angeles based company that had recently expanded. One of the new division heads called to book a communication-training program for his team. He explained that he wanted us to come “immediately, if not sooner.” Due to his obvious concern for the success of his new division, we shuffled our schedules and arrived to begin our team building training the following week. Our first in-person meeting took place in his office, just prior to the start of the first session. He explained that his team had made virtually no progress with their initial goals “because there’s too much conflict!” My only thought was, “Oy! Wait till he hears our introduction to his group when we tell everyone that we’re here to teach them how to have conflict!”

What is productive conflict? (and do we really need it?)
Here is our definition of unproductive conflict: frequent, repetitive arguments that are not resolved and that leave both parties feeling more angry and frustrated. It is common for unproductive conflict to occur when the “real” issues are not being communicated, but instead trivial issues are being expressed through provocative communication styles such as jokes, sarcasm, denial, blame, etc.

Productive conflict, however, is an open exchange of conflicting or differing ideas in which parties feel equally heard, respected, and unafraid to voice dissenting opinions for the purpose of reaching a mutually comfortable resolution. Because this type of conflict allows individuals to feel comfortable sharing conflicting opinions and ideas, it is a very creative and dynamic process that reveals new possibilities and insights.

The stronger your ability to engage in productive conflict, the more profitable your business will be. Think about it: why do you hire different “experts” in your company? Because each one of them has different education, work and life experience, and problem solving skills. The ability for teams to come together and share their ideas, expertise and opinions is what inspires the most creative and forward thinking business decisions. But this will inevitably involve conflict as your teams share their different opinions on the “best” way to accomplish each goal. Even the sole proprietor profits from successful productive conflict skills since interactions with clients or customers can be handled in ways that ways that undermine trust, create negative feelings and ultimately turn customers away or that allow relationships to flourish (and generate excellent word of mouth and referrals).

5 simple steps to productive conflict

1. State position using “I” statements, OR speaking behind a glass wall. Imagine that you are standing behind a glass wall. You can see and hear the person you are talking to, but you are only allowed to discuss what is taking place on your side of the wall. You do this by talking ONLY about yourself. Be very careful not to assume that starting a sentence with “I” is enough to avoid pointing the finger (We hear this all the time from “I” communication beginners: “I think you’re wrong!” Clearly this will not avoid an argument.). The goal is to avoid creating defensiveness in the other party and to ensure that you are clearly voicing your ideas and thoughts rather than becoming distracted from the issue by pointing fingers at the other person. Just think about how it feels when the person with whom you are arguing says something like, “You just don’t get it! Your ideas are crazy!” That “you” immediately places us on guard, so we become unwilling to engage in the kind of healthy exchange necessary for productive conflict. Try “I” instead!

2. Identify common ground or a common goal. While productive conflict does by nature involve an exchange of differing ideas and opinions, it still requires that the involved parties share the common goal of developing a mutually agreed upon resolution, plan, or decision. Clearly stating what you and the other party have in common -- to complete the project, resolve the conflict, decide on a plan of action – means that you begin the discussion as members of the same team, moving forward in the same ultimate direction, rather than as opposing forces.

3. Use reflective listening. In order for conflict to be productive, the thoughts and ideas of all involved parties must be truly listened to and understood. We are often so eager for someone to hear and agree with our point of view that we lose site of the fact that a solution that works for both parties can never be reached until all opinions, wants, needs, and desires have been shared and listened to. Reflective listening involves not responding immediately, but actually thinking about what the other person has said asking questions, if needed, to ensure that you understand and to reassure the other party that they are really being heard. For example, “It sounds like you’re suggesting that we restructure the management team, is that correct?”

4. Get curious About others’ ideas. Rather than immediately shooting down a co-worker’s ideas, or jumping to defend your own position or opinions, “get curious” about your co-workers’ ideas. Focus the discussion on finding out more information about your co-workers’ thoughts and experiences, and the reasons for their position. Uncover as much information as possible about why your co-workers think the way they do. This not only prevents the discussion from being an argument in which the involved parties staunchly defend their position, but it also may result in you learning something.

5. Gradients of agreement. Making conflict productive and creative also involves redefining what it means to “agree” with others. An agreement doesn’t have to mean a 100% consensus of involved parties. It could mean a partial agreement, or even an agreement to move forward with a decision without complete consensus from the group. Operating under the assumption that all parties must agree completely may keep you stuck in the process of resolving a conflict or making a decision. See if it is possible to achieve a gradient of agreement.

Conclusion

Business productivity depends on your willingness to engage in productive conflict. Hopefully your business creates a work environment where top, mid and lower level employees trust that openly sharing ideas and voicing opinions is not only acceptable, but encouraged. By applying these five simple steps you will be able to transform “conflict” into a powerful business tool. To learn more communication and collaborative team building skills, we encourage you to see our website at: www.ourtalkworks.com or to contact Talk Works at 310.860.5191.

Victoria Simon, Ph.D., CEO Talk Works, Inc.

Holly Pedersen, Ph.D., President Talk Works, Inc.

Negotiation

"Everything is negotiable." We've all heard that line.

Those who are most skillful at negotiating usually come out ahead. Negotiation is the key to resolving conflict. Let's face it, few of us enjoy dealing with conflict - be it with customers, employees, co-workers or even family members. This is particularly true when the conflict becomes hostile and when strong feelings become involved. Resolving conflict can be mentally exhausting and emotionally draining. But conflict avoidance just makes problems worse.

Part of the problem is that we are predisposed to think of conflict (or resolution of conflict) as an isolated incident or event. In reality resolving conflict is more of a process, or a series of events over time involving both external and internal variables. Conflict episodes typically represent the result of past behaviors of both parties. Therefore negotiation is not a static exercise. Effective negotiation must include the "background events" in the relationship. These cannot be separated from the resolution.

Professor E. Wertheim of the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University says, "an effective negotiation usually involves a number of steps including the exchange of proposals and counter proposals." In good-faith negotiation, both sides are expected to make offers and concessions. The objective is not only to try to solve the problem, but to gain information that will enable you to get a clearer notion of what the true issues might be and how your "opponent" sees reality. Through offers and counter offers there should be a goal of a lot of information exchange that might yield a common definition of the problem.

Negotiation is not so much about winning or losing but rather about meeting your opponent half way and convincing your opponent to meet YOU half way. Here are some tips in how to effectively negotiate for the win - win:

1. Conduct your negotiation tactics in order to obtain more information.
2. Try to understand and identify with your opponent's motive.
3. Conflict should not be avoided; rather it should be faced head on.
4. Confrontation is not bad, rather it is good and more often results in resolution.
5. Resentment is often the result of conflict avoidance.
6. Conflict involves the thoughts, perceptions, memories, and emotions of the people involved; these must be considered when negotiating.
7. Negotiations are like a chess match. So make sure you enter into negotiation with a firm strategy.
8. Anticipate how the other will respond and act accordingly.
9. Be honest with yourself regarding the strengths of your position.
10. Evaluate how important each issue is to your opponent and how important it will to yourself.
    · Begin with a positive approach and try to establish rapport and mutual trust before starting.
11. Try for a small concession early in the negotiation.
12. Pay little attention to initial offers. Often times these are points of departure; they tend to be extreme and idealistic.
13. Find agreements and joint gains. Make these your primary focus.
14. Focus on the other person's interests and your own goals and principles, while you generate other possibilities.
15. Be very clear on what Professor E. Wertheim calls your BATNA; "Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. This is important because the negotiation needs to aim to match or do better than your BATNA. The BATNA establishes a threshold for the settlement. Determining your BATNA or walk away is not always easy. You have to establish a concrete value for various alternatives."
16. In the planning process it is also important to estimate your opponent's BATNA.
    · Try to come as close to the other person's BATNA as you can.
17. Aim to influence your opponent that their alternatives may not be as good as they perceive them to be.

While we all engage in many negotiations during a week this doesn't mean we will become more proficient negotiators. As they say PERFECT practice makes perfect. To become better we need to become aware of the structure and dynamics of negotiation and we need to think systematically, objectively, and critically about our own negotiations. After engaging in a negotiation, reflect on what happened and figure out what you did effectively and what you need to do better.

Often times at the Small Business Advisory Network we are called upon by our client's to both assist and coach them in negotiating business issues or relationships. If you are looking to learn more about how effective negotiation might improve your business performance, please let us know. Our mission is to influence decisions, improve performance and inspire change. That's what our consulting, workshops; web site, weekly articles and The Small Business Hour Radio Show are all about.

Love In Business

The biggest disease this day and age is that of people feeling unloved.--Author Unknown

The software engineer put on Nirvana's "In Utero" as he did every evening when he got home from work, took his gun out, loaded it, and tried to garner enough courage to put it in his mouth and squeeze the trigger. This was a ritual he had played out every night or the past year. While successful at work, he was miserable. He felt no one cared about him as a person- he was just another programmer, doing what programmers did, living a solitary life with no friends. Then one day, out of the blue, his boss sent him a personal e-mail- not related to code revisions, interface changes, or other work related items. But one that expressed his thanks and sincere appreciation for the work he had accomplished in the time he had worked there, and how he was valuable to the team not as just a programmer, but as a person. He told this employee that he was glad he knew him as a human being, not just as someone who typed away at his computer all day. That night the software engineer went through his daily ritual of putting on Nirvana, loading his gun, and for the first time- he was scared that he might actually go through with it. He sold the gun, and with the proceeds bought his boss a gift- and told him the story of how that simple gesture had saved his life.

This story was related to Mark Deo and I on the small business hour this week by Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App. He is at the forefront of a new wave of business thinking- not one focused on numbers, but one focused on people. His philosophy is that one must share three things in order to have a successful business relationship: knowledge, networks and compassion. By doing so you can not only help your business, but you can help others as human beings, much as in the story above.

How does one share their knowledge? By staying informed reading about the latest trends in business reading about things that interest other people and then sharing that knowledge with people who are interested in it. How do you know what you should be reading? A great place to start is the list of books on our website www.smallbusinesshour.com. Tim Sanders also maintains a reading list on his web site at www.timsanders.com. Some publications that are excellent are business magazines such as Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Business Week, and Business 2.0. By reading these books and publications you're making yourself valuable as a walking library to people that you speak with. This allows you to become a personal resource to others- someone who they can trust and count on for information. This in turn makes you as a person more valuable.

What do we mean by sharing your networks? This is not some reference to computers and internet access- To share your networks you must take your personal contacts and instead of protecting them and hiding them in secrecy open them up to the world. Share your contacts with others who might find them to be of use. This can be a simple matter such as simply passing a phone number on to someone, or giving a referral. Better still is personally introducing two people who can both gain some value from establishing a new relationship. By doing so you become a business "matchmaker" of sorts- someone who helps others to achieve their goals through communication with people to which you introduce them.

How does someone show compassion in business? It comes back to one of Dale Carnegie's principles, "Become genuinely interested in other people." Only by being interested in someone and showing that interest can you demonstrate that you care about them as people and not just as tangible resources. People respond to being cared for- you never know how making a small gesture can profoundly impact someone's life.

I encourage you to think of someone in your business life who you can show your love to this week. Become genuinely interested in them as a person- not to try and gain something from them, but to find common ground you share. Then discover what it is that interests them, and find some information about that topic that you can share with them. Find someone in your network of contacts who also has interest in the same topics, and introduce the two. You will be amazed at how that will endear you to both contacts, turning them from business relationships into personal friends. I'd love to hear your success stories at mwalker@sbanetwork.org. Have a great week!

This Business Update was written by SBA Network Business Advisor Matthew Walker- for more information, please contact him at 310-320-8190 or mwalker@sbanetwork.org.

Listening Louder

Listening is one of the most deceiving skills in business, or in life for that matter. Ask anyone how effective they are at "listening" and most will say they are pretty good. Yet in reality many "miscommunications" and unneeded conflicts occur just because we fail to practice good listening skills. This is rather evident in sales and marketing interactions.

Salespeople are taught that the client should do most of the talking and they should "listen." Yet if we were to observe salespeople in action with their clients, as I have, we would see that the very opposite is true. They carry-on about the benefits of their product, service or company and often burn themselves out on their own "pitch."

I am not without guilt. I have stopped myself too many times in the middle of a great rant. Being a radio show host for over a decade as well as an instructor and public speaker it's no wonder that I could ever shut-up! Nevertheless I have found that the "info-download" method of selling and marketing is less effective than ever before.

Neil Rackham of the Huthwaite Organization and author of Spin Selling, conducted extensive research on the selling behaviors of high performers in sales. What he found through his research was that high performing sales people did three things differently in their meetings from those people who were not effective.

High performing sales people:
1. Asked a lot more questions
2. Allowed the client to do most of the talking
3. Waited much longer before jumping in with a solution

Use the one minute tool (inspired by Robin Ryan's excellent book, 60 Seconds & You're Hired): if you have more to say than you can say in a minute, limit yourself to one minute and use that time to give an overview of the most important points you would make if you talked longer. Then stop and ask your listener to help you decide what to prioritize and how much more detail to go into. For each point and sub-point you add, start by speaking for just one minute, asking for more feedback as you go on to clarify which issues you need to address, and taking a moment before speaking to focus what you will say.

This is also true in marketing. Often times web sites, brochures, and even mailers and promotional material is focused on "selling." Think of ways that you can "engage" the user. Make your marketing material interactive. While we can't practice the same types of listening techniques in second party marketing material, we can "listen" by making our material highly interactive. Ask for their response, advice, suggestions. Often time these materials are more like info downloads rather than engaging conversations.

Listening is a skill that impacts every area of our life. I urge you to think of ways that you can "listen louder" to your clients, prospects and those within your sphere of influence. There is no better way to practice attraction than to master the art of listening.

Please call or e-mail me with any comments or questions.

This article was written by Mark Deo. You can reach me at 310-320-8190.

Listening

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.

-Ralph Nichols

Listening is far too often overlooked as a skill that is important to businesspeople. Like all skills, it can be learned and improved on with practice. There are many elements that go into being a good listener- read below for some tips.

3 steps of active listening
Hearing- Hearing just means listening enough to catch what the speaker is saying. For example, say you were listening to a report on zebras, and the speaker mentioned that no two are alike. If you can repeat the fact, then you have heard what has been said.

Understanding- The next part of listening happens when you take what you have heard and understand it in your own way. Let's go back to that report on zebras. When you hear that no two are alike, think about what that might mean. You might think, "Maybe this means that the pattern of stripes is different for each zebra."

Judging- After you are sure you understand what the speaker has said, think about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have heard? You might think, "How could the stripes to be different for every zebra? But then again, the fingerprints are different for every person. I think this seems believable."

Reflective Listening
A good listener tries to understand how the other is experiencing the interaction and to shape their responses so that other person understands from where they are coming. There are four key elements to reflective listening.

• Empathy

• Acceptance

• Congruence

• Concreteness

Empathy
We all have a strong tendency to advise, tell, agree, or disagree from our own point of view. Empathy is the listener’s effort to understand the speakers internal frame of reference rather than an external point of view, such as a theory; a set of standards, or the listener's preferences. Expressed verbally: "I follow you," "I’m with you" or "I understand". You should be as non-judgmental as possible while listening. A person who sees that a listener is really trying to understand his or her meanings will be willing to explore his or her problems and self more deeply.

Acceptance
You should having respect for a person for simply being a person- this acceptance should be as unconditional as possible to best encourage a free flow of information. Avoid expressing agreement or disagreement with what the other person says. This encourages the other person to be less defensive and to explore aspects that they might otherwise keep hidden

Congruence
Congruence refers to openness, frankness, and genuineness on the part of the listener. Candor on the part of the listener tends to evoke candor in the speaker. This can, however, be at odds with the principles of empathy and acceptance.

Concreteness
Focusing on specifics rather than vague generalities is the principle of concreteness. Often a person who is has a problem will avoid painful feelings by being abstract or impersonal, using expressions like "sometimes there are situations that are difficult" (which is vague and abstract). The listener can encourage concreteness by asking the speaker to be more specific. For example, instead of a agreeing with a statement like, "You just can’t trust a teacher. They care about themselves first and you second", you can ask to what specific incident the speaker is referring.

Non-verbal Feedback
We listen and give feedback with our faces as well as our ears and the words we speak. Professor Alfred Mehrabian of Stanford, studied congruence and incongruent communication. He found that when 'mixed messages' were deliberately sent, 7% of people believed the words, 38% believed the message expressed in the tonality, and 55% believed the message expressed in the physiology, or body language.

Tips for being a good listener

1. Give your full attention to the person speaking

2. Make sure your mind is focused, too. It can be easy to let your mind wander if you think you know what the person is going to say next, but you might be wrong! If you feel your mind wandering, change the position of your body and try to concentrate on the speaker's words.

3. Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk. Speakers appreciate having the chance to say everything they would like to say without being interrupted. When you interrupt, it looks like you aren't listening, even if you really are.

4. Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak! You can't really listen if you are busy thinking about what you want say next.

5. Listen for main ideas. The main ideas are the most important points the speaker wants to get across. They may be mentioned at the start or end of a talk, and repeated a number of times. Pay special attention to statements that begin with phrases such as "My point is..." or "The thing to remember is..."

6. Ask questions. If you are not sure you understand what the speaker has said, just ask. It is a good idea to repeat in your own words what the speaker said so that you can be sure your understanding is correct. For example, you might say, "When you said that no two zebras are alike, did you mean that the stripes are different on each one?"

Time is on your side! Thoughts move about four times as fast as speech.

I hope this helps you to improve your listening skills.

Have a great week!!!

Intangible Assets are More Valuable Than Tangible Ones, or Why Beer's Better Than Coffee

"You're insane, Mark," my old schoolmate and multi-millionaire buddy told me. "I'm a successful businessman and you can't convince me that intangible assets are more valuable than tangible ones. I'll take real estate, equipment, inventory, and cash over ideas, experiences and influence any day! You've been living in California too long. Your brain's starting to fry."

Tired of reading already? Click here- LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE.

Now when Mike spoke, most people in New Jersey listened. He owned and operated the Budweiser distributorship for the state. To those unaware of the power of an exclusive alcohol distributor, let's just say it's a tad more profitable than being able to print your own money.

What makes my buddy's success even more exasperating for me is that he wanted me to be his partner after high school. But Noooooo not me. I had to go to college and be the "smart" guy. Yet, despite our economic disparity, we are still pals.

"Ok Mike!” I asked him, "what do you suppose is the ratio of tangible vs. intangible assets for say Amazon.com or Yahoo or even Microsoft?"

He looked annoyed now. "Alright techno-nerd, maybe you have a point with those cyber companies, but what about in the real world?"

"Go ahead and name a company," I asked.

"Here's one you Californians know and love. How about Starbucks," he challenged.

"Ok, they have lots of prime real estate as well as equipment, inventory and cash. But what do you think is worth more to them: these tangible assets, or their customer traffic? Or how about the ideas for leveraging that traffic in order to launch nearly intangible products like the latest obscure coffee concoctions they dream-up? Or the ability for customers to make their own CDs with the new Hear Music kiosks or the wireless high speed Internet connectivity? Isn't Starbucks really selling an experience, ideas for a cool new lifestyle, a place where people can influence and be influenced? Isn't it more about the "experience" than just the coffee?"

"Alright, alright, coffee's for wimps anyway. Have a beer," Mike goaded me as he handed me a Bud long neck. He still knew how to win an argument.

Carving Out a Piece of Your Life
Maybe you're like Mike. Not yet ready to believe that the age of market share has past. Perhaps you think that it's all about mind share. That is how aware people are of your company, product, or service.

Let me remind you that Starbucks isn't vying for more of the coffee market. Nor do they care if you remember their name. As long as you dig the "experience" in the store. As long as you and your friends like to meet and hangout there. That's what they're really after. When that happens, they've won more than a greater share of the coffee market. They've gone beyond raising their top-of mind awareness. They've infiltrated your life. They have literally motivated you to carve out a piece of your life for THEM! They have gained greater heart share.

Today winning "share of heart" is far more critical than winning share of market or share of mind. "Market share" has been described as the proportion of industry sales that is controlled by a company. "Mind share" on the other hand is a measure of how people perceive the product, service, or company as compared to the competition.

"Heart Share" is the measure of the extent to which we make ourselves more desirable to the people that are most critical to our success. Not by the quality or even the economic value of the products or services but rather in the "way" we provide them. Market share focuses on the size of the market. Mind share focuses on the perception of the brand. Heart share focuses on the intangibles in the relationship.

Improving Personal Relationships

Greetings from Mark Deo. I rarely use this newsletter to promote events unless I can personally attest to their value. My friend and mentor, Morrie Shechtman, and his wife Arleah have been huge influences on my life. You can read more about them at: http://www.morrieandarleah.com. They have a new venture they are working on, and that is the Love in the Present Tense Workshop. This workshop builds on the principles found in their best selling book, Love in the Present Tense, and helps individuals and couples learn to apply them to their lives in a lasting fashion. They have helped my wife Kathy and I build a stronger relationship than ever before. Below is some information about the event. I strongly encourage anyone seeking to improve their personal relationships to attend.

Persons that attend this workshop will learn:
Transformational, Sustained Change - We facilitate the participant's ability to act differently and experience the results over several days with feedback and coaching
New Skills And Tools - This is not therapy. It goes beyond talking about your life and allows you to learn how to take control of your emotions and create intamacy.
How Implement in Accountability - Learn the techniques for holding yourself and others accountable for their commitments.
Eliminate Fear Of Conflict - Learn how to stop arguing and start having great fights that permit you to use conflict to resolve differences.
Purge Yourself Of Self-Doubt - Banish that nagging, toxic critic, once and for all.
Develop Your Own Personal Vision And Your Vision As A Couple - Discover the force that gives meaning to your life and relationships.

Perhaps these are areas where you may seek to grow in your relationship. Or someone you know may be having trouble with communication in their relationships. Please let them know about this workshop. Just pass on this web address: http://www.sbanetwork.org/clients/morrie/blast.htm. If you don't want to bring up this sensitive issue, just reply to this e-mail with their e-mail address and we'll contact them to let them know an anonymous friend suggested that we do.

At that web page they can find everything they'll need to know about the event, and learn how they can qualify to attend. Our availability is extremely limited, and we only want to have attendees that are eager to learn why their relationships are not what they want them to be, and how to get past these issues.

Thank you for your help!

-Mark Deo

Getting More Referrals

Absolutely the best form of advertising there is. No sales pressure, no credibility problems, and very low cost of sales. People refer customers to you as a favor to their friends, the customers. If it's done as a favor to you, that's usually a bonus. Think about it. The last time you recommended a movie, or a business, did you do it as a favor to the person you were talking to or the business you were talking about? In all likelihood, it was to benefit the person you were talking to, probably a friend or business acquaintance. If your recommendation was to fall through, you lose credibility.

Referrals have to be earned. People will not tell their family and friends, to use your service if they are not confident in your abilities. Once you have earned this, it should come naturally. But it often doesn't. Why? Simply put, people forget. They're busy and your business isn't their top priority. Referrals are the absolute best way to make sure that you keep the new business coming in. That helps you to spend more time working then selling. And it means time spent with people who know what you're all about instead of cold calling! Here are 10 of the absolute best ways to get more referrals: 1. Ask for them The simplest way in the world to get referrals is to ask for them. Whenever someone compliments you on a job, let them know you appreciate it, and that you'll do just as good a job for their friends. Tell them that you'd appreciate it if they could spread the word if they really like your work. You may assume that people would tell their friends, but it's amazing the difference it makes if you give them that gentle reminder. People like to help those that do a good job for them. It makes them feel smart, and they feel good helping out their friends, who just happen to be your next customers... 2. Trade them. Make a deal with other businesspeople you know. If you know they do good work, offer to tell people about them every chance you get, and ask them to return the favor. It's a good way to start building relationships and it tells you what they really think of your work. If they agree, make sure you keep an eye out for people to refer them to. Keep up your end of the bargain, and the odds are good they'll keep theirs. 3. Reward them. The idea of `finders fees' is very common in big business, but it is frequently ignored in small business. It shouldn't be. Make it known that when someone sends you a job, there's something in it for them. Perhaps a set fee, or a percentage of the total. If they send you a new customer and you're in retail, maybe a discount on their next purchase. Whatever you do, make sure it's something worthwhile for them and sensible for you - $10 for a $25,000 job is insulting - $10 for a one time retail customer buying a used tennis racket might be too much. For client to client referrals it's best to go with discounts. That encourages the customer to make additional purchases, or increases their loyalty as they see what else they can do with the money. Anything that expands your customer base is worth rewarding. 4. Give them. Want someone to send you referrals? Send some their way. Nothing will start the process and make it solid like having them know that you're ready to return the favor. So return it in advance. Some people will send you referrals after this simply because they know it's not going to be a one way street. Others because they appreciate the thought you showed them. And some will do it out of a feeling of owing you something. Very few will ignore it. 5. Print them. Use testimonials in your literature and advertising. Some people will wonder if they are the only ones that really liked your service, or if you did a good job for them just to get some extra business. If they see that others also appreciate your work and were willing to say so in print, they'll feel more comfortable in stepping out of their shell and making their own satisfaction known. Some people need the knowledge that they're not the only ones who think a certain way before they'll say so. 6. Give out more business cards. Yes, they do make a difference. If someone has your card, or hopefully more than one of them, they will do "something" with it. If you have asked them when they're in the right frame of mind to pass it along, they will. One of the best things you can do with business cards is to give more than one. If a person has just told you how much they like your work, hand them 5 business cards. Tell them something like: "Well, I certainly appreciate the good word. If you think you'd be doing them a favor, maybe you could pass these on to people you know when they need work done. Make sure you keep one for yourself in case you need to get hold of me, though!" Yes, this works. It's different, so they remember. And it's personal, so it matters to them. 7. Community service. People are always willing to recommend those they see as leaders. Public service projects are a great way to become that leader and give something back to your community at the same time. Make sure you don't do this just for publicity, though. Find a cause you personally believe in and work with that. It will be much more satisfying for you, and more productive for the group you help. And you won't come across as a phony. If you're helping with a cause you believe in, people will see that you care. They might realize you will probably care as much about your work as well. 8. Sponsor something. A sports team, a fund-raising drive or even a cookbook for a school. This falls into nearly the same category as community service, except that it is seen as advertising. It has the same effect. It keeps your name in front of the community and gets people talking about you and your business. What you sponsor should be dictated by the type of business you're in. A doctor will do well sponsoring a marathon or charity golf tournament, but perhaps not a tavern's dart team. Sports bars and construction companies do well with baseball teams, but might not do as well with a bake-off. Match your clientele with the activity. Don't think this works? Ask the people who sponsor team after team, for years. They're not doing it solely for fun. While these sponsorships require fairly large investments they pay off if structured properly. A while back I had one of my clients sponsor the LA Marathon. The cost of this was over $50,000. Sound too expensive? They received over $100,000 of FREE advertising in the LA market. But that wasn't the biggest benefit. To top that off they received 15 new clients each valued at $12,000 DIRECTLY as a result of the sponsorship. Their $50,000 investment turned into a $280,000 return! 9. Be helpful. Yes, something that simple. People appreciate someone who is helpful. If they appreciate you, they'll remember you and want to return the favor. Again, do this where it's appropriate and where it's meant sincerely. Like most things that lead to referrals, this is something that becomes an end in itself before long. 10. Join a networking group. You may be familiar with the idea of networking groups. They get together on a regular basis and exchange leads. These groups are composed of professionals who are checked for integrity before being accepted for membership so that each member is sure that they are only recommending quality businesses to their family and friends. Joining one of these groups is like having a troop of professional salespeople armed with the best closing tool available. Personal recommendations. If your business is run with integrity and you back up your work, it's definitely an option worth pursuing. For more information on professional networking groups, see this website. Referrals can make a huge difference in the success of your business. Don't leave them to chance. Get an organized plan for generating them. And keep at it. Make it work and soon you'll be dealing with the problem of having more business than you can handle. And then, of course, you'll be referring these new customers to someone else. Have a great week! I hope that this "Business Update" has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com Mark Deo Print this article.

Developing Rapport

Are you a salesperson?

Don’t answer so quickly. Do you ever need to persuade others to take action? Then you’re selling. Do you ever need to get the boss to understand your point of view? Then you’re selling. Do you ever need to get your children to try it “your way”? Then you’re selling.

We are all engaged in selling every day. Unfortunately few are very good at it. Those who can master the art of selling are successful. They get their way most often, have higher incomes, and ultimately more leisure and free time.

Yet even seasoned selling professionals fail to master the most critical part of selling…Building Rapport. I will take the next few Updates and focus on how we can build rapport regardless of our career. In fact, this is probably even more important for those not engaged in traditional selling.

Why Rapport is so important

• Over 90% of the sales process is based on having a good rapport with the prospect.

• We usually develop rapport easily with people who are like us.

• Before we can try to talk about how we can satisfy our prospect’s needs, we have to get them prepared to listen to us.

• We do this by getting them to trust us -- by developing rapport.

Ways to develop Rapport

First Method: Mirroring

• One of the most powerful ways we can develop rapport is through physiology.

• Unfortunately, only 7% of the words we use to communicate get through to others. However, 38% of our tonality and 55% of our physiology or body language are communicated very effectively.

• Match their pace, rhythm, tonality and articulation.

• Is the prospect formal or friendly?

How to implement Mirroring:

• Wait several seconds before shifting your vocal tone or pace to match your prospect.

• Mirroring is a continuous and fluid process so that as you speak, you continue to change your vocal qualities to remain in rapport.

• One word of caution -- don’t mimic. If your prospect has an accent, don’t try to copy it or they may realize what you are doing and get very insulted.

• Mirroring is very subtle.
  

The technique of mirroring takes practice to learn effectively. Try it on your family and friends so it becomes a natural skill for you to use. When you become proficient at using this technique, your prospects will not realize what you are doing. They will only feel extremely comfortable with you because you are so much like them.

The second method of rapport building is called commonality and we will discuss that next week. I hope this helps you to forge better trust, strengthen relationships and ultimately create greater success. Want to know more about this and other methods of building rapport? Check out my upcoming Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage Class beginning in mid July.

I hope that this "Business Update" has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com.

Have a great week!

Being Understood

Have you ever looked at a brochure, web site, print ad or mailer and had to read it twice to figure out exactly what it was all about? Have you ever listened to someone talk about their business only to wonder what kind of product or service they provide? I am constantly amazed by the number of ads, business cards, brochures, web sites and logos that I see that leave me wondering just what it is that company does!

How can we clearly communicate what we do at a glance. And more importantly how can we communicate the BENEFITS that our target customers will receive if they deal with us.

"Marketing Mimes give us the ability to become instantly understood."

Where They Come From:
In 1976 Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins wrote a book called "The Selfish Gene." In this book he introduced a new concept. Dawkins asserted that like a "gene," a "meme" is a self-replicating idea that is passed along from person to person. He sited examples of memes: memorable tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, fads and so on. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body in the form of sperm, memes propagate themselves by leaping from mind to mind in a form of cultural imitation.

What a Meme Does:

• It is obvious in its meaning
• It focuses on the outcome
• It is self-explanatory and simplistic
• It is easy to replicate in someone's mind
• It actively transfers information

Developing the Meme:
The meme is not necessarily a slogan, headline, or a tag but it is most effective in that form. It really is the core message of what you do. In some ways the meme is your branding position statement. Memes are often seen with a company's logo. This is called a logo assembly. Here's some tips on developing your meme:
First ask: What do my clients get as a result of using my service?
Next: Strip the phrase down to the essentials.
Try to strike an emotional chord with your meme
Make it easy to remember
Make sure it rolls off the tongue nicely

Examples of Memes:
The meme is not necessarily a slogan, headline, or a tag but it is most effective in that form.

Hewlett Packard - "Expanding possibilities"
Fiji Film - "You can see the future from here"
United - "Fly the Friendly Skies"
Service Merchandise - "One Call. Done."
In Focus - "Project yourself"
Continental - "Work hard. Fly Right"
Best Buy - "Now that's a great idea"
Jeep - "There's only one"
Alamo - "Drive Happy"
AAA - "We're always with you"
Moore Paints - "We make it simple. You make it beautiful."

Testing the Meme:
Once you've developed your meme, you need to test it. When you communicate your meme, do people ask the right kind of questions?

Example:
I.T. Advertising - Not just pretty pictures and clever headlines - bottom-line RESULTS! Well that's what advertisers want, right?

The Small Business Hour - "Helping small business owners make better decisions." - - - This begs the question, What kind of decisions?

MarketingQuestions.com - "Providing answers for small businesses" - - - This begs the question, What kind of answers?

These are precisely the kind of questions that allow me to demonstrate how I am different, how I solve problems and how I may be the ONLY solution in some cases.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS for writing good memes, taglines or slogans for your business:

1) Start by noticing ads on billboards as you drive down the road. Billboard advertisers have but a couple of seconds to grab your attention and sell their product or service. Usually their copy is going to be a very good meme or tagline with a picture of the product or service. These are great examples of how to write effective taglines.

2) Notice other media forms like magazine and newspaper display ads, business cards, brief radio and TV commercials. Observe the thing that caught your attention and makes the message easily remembered. It's usually a concise and well-written meme.

3) Write down everything you can think of that relates to your business. You may even start with a narrative description in paragraph form.

4) Now, make a list of the top 25 or 30 things that are important and worth mentioning. Whittle that list down to 8 or 10 of the most important things you wish to say. Now eliminate repetition or things that are not really that necessary to your product or service. Get your list of words or phrases down to 3 or 4 central elements.

5) Based on your final core selection, make up some phrases that will serve as your meme or slogan for consideration. Keep it short and use simple, everyday language.

The authors of "Advertising: Its Role in Modern Marketing" (Dryden Press, 1994) list five rules for slogan writing. Dean Krugman, Leonard Reid, Watson Dunn and Arnold Barban say:

• Make the slogan or meme easy to remember and unlikely to confuse.
• Make it help differentiate the product (or service) from the competition.
• Make it provoke curiosity, if possible.
• Make it emphasize a reward or action.
• Use rhyme, rhythm or alliteration.

I hope this has been helpful for those of you considering tag lines or slogans for a new business or even the introduction of a new product or service. Developing these kinds of promotional elements are precisely what we focus on in our classes and workshops.

If you are interested in applying this kind of creative promotional strategy to your marketing effort, enroll in my "Out-Marketing The Competition Class." This nine week course focuses on learning and practicing specific marketing methods and strategies that can be implemented very rapidly and cost-effectively in a small business. Participants will develop a complete marketing plan by the end of the class.

Attraction Reduces Friction

Friction is the force that appears whenever two things rub against each other. Although two objects might look smooth, on a microscopic level, they are very rough and jagged. No matter which direction something moves in, friction pulls it the other way. Move something left, friction pulls right. Move something up, friction pulls down. It appears as if nature has given us friction to stop us from moving anything.

We can encounter friction in relationships with people as well. When one person’s perception differs from another then there is “relationship friction.” Creating attraction is the fastest way to bring about change because we reduce or even eliminate friction. Typically friction is inversely proportionate to the amount of change we want to produce. For example, if we are looking to launch a new product, the typical approach would be to design and print product announcements and send them to customers. We may also develop press kits and send them to the media in hopes of published product reviews. By the way, I am not suggesting that these actions are ineffective, simply that launching such initiatives will produce some degree of friction.

Let’s assume we do in fact send the above mentioned product announcements and press kits. When this happens we unwittingly create friction in a number of ways. First, the customers that receive the announcement may say; “my supplier is just looking for a way to sell me more products at a higher price.” Or the media that receives the press kit might have so many press kits to review that there is just not enough time to do so. In other words, the time required to perform the review or the investment required to buy the new product rubs up against the perception of the potential value gained.

This force operates in the world of management as well as the world of marketing. What if we are experiencing a reduction in customer satisfaction levels? What if we needed to change the way our customer service representatives are handling clients? Again the traditional approach would be to launch some type of customer service training initiative. Again this would produce friction. First, the customer service staff will need to commit the time to attend the training. This will “rub against” the time they will need to invest, which typically would be dedicated to assisting customers. When announcing such training you may have even heard employees say, “Why bother and train us to serve the customer better when all this does is give us LESS time available to serve the customer?” Again regardless of your perception of the value of customer service training, the point I am making is that merely attempting the change creates some type of friction.

Attraction is the opposite of friction. I like to believe that if we can reduce friction in our business relationships then we will be more successful in creating attraction. This can alter our ability to motivate customers to take action as well as employees to become more productive and committed. We will transform “adapting to necessary change” into LEADING revolutionary change! This is one of the reasons that I have created my “attraction principles.” I believe that with the right knowledge, mindset, and discipline we can actually “attract” a positive, desirable change, rather than being swept-up in unwanted change. Check out the Attract More Business Program and sign-up for our upcoming Attraction workshops.

Seeking a way to put this into practice for your business? Come to our Attraction workshops! Go to: http://www.sbanetwork.org/classes/upcoming_classes.asp for more information!

A Dog Named Credit Manager

While attending a business conference in a rural setting, a business executive decided to take a walk. He hadn't gone far before he encountered a large dog sitting in the middle of the road barking at everyone. Nearby was a young man who said to the executive, "He doesn't belong to anyone; in fact he didn't even have a name until some business types attending a conference took to calling him "Credit Manager."

At this point, with a puzzled look on his face, the businessman asked, "Why did they name the dog Credit Manager?" The young man answered, "They said that they named him Credit Manager because all he does is sit around on his dead end and bark at everyone."

The sales avoidance department, the ugly stepchild of accounting, and a necessary evil. Many business managers still think of credit and past due A/R management as a cost center and as a risk avoidance function. If the goal of a business is to avoid risks it should get out of extending credit terms and out of sales.

Wrong Area/Measurements
Traditionally the credit and A/R management area is found within the accounting department. The reason being to keep the sales guys from giving away the store and to safeguard the assets of the organization. Such traditional thinking often results in the credit / A/R management area taking on the characteristics of the accounting department.

Credit / A/R management is not an accounting function; it is a sales support function and those involved in credit and A/R management must be able to interface and communicate with just about every other area of the business as well as with customers, transportation companies and other vendors. Yes, the accounting department needs to know what is going on with the extension of credit and the management of what may be the largest asset a business has, its accounts receivable; but the primary goal of credit and A/R management is to support sales.

The other problem, besides the type of people involved, with credit being located within accounting lies with how it's performance is measured, i.e. D.S.O. (Days Sales Outstanding) and % bad debt.

Measure for D.S.O. and % bad debt and the message being sent is that the job is to look for a way to say no, to reject any potential risk and should a customer ever become past due the job is to stop further credit sales. Measuring performance of the credit area by DSO and % bad debt results in the investment made in getting a customer to the point where they want to buy being lost; and along with the investment you can kiss off any potential future business with that customer.

Say Yes To Sales and Profit
Credit Approval should be defined from a perspective that the job is to fine a way to say yes to a profitable sale while remaining confident of payment. The risk associated with the "type" of business the customer is in, the "time" the customer has been in business and with "how" the customer has paid in the past must thenbe weighed against "the product value at time of sale." There's always a way to say yes based on terms and conditions of sale: down payment requirements, shorter terms, personal guarantees, third party guarantees, credit insurance, first born child. There's always a way to say yes. Credit rejection should come from the customer, not the seller.

An enlightened credit department approaches credit approval from a perspective that the job is to find a way to say yes to every profitable sale.

Completing the Sale
When past due A/R management is placed within the accounting area and it's performance measured by DSO and % bad debt it is referred to as "collections," as the enforcement of payment.

An enlightened credit and A/R Management department understands that most past due accounts are good customers and that the traditional definition is out of step with the reasons why customers become past due.

A survey of 8000 businesses in a wide range of industries found that close to 25% of accounts receivable are delinquent at any given time, one day plus beyond terms, but less than 1% are written off as a bad debt loss.

Approaching the management of past due accounts, as the "process of completing the sale" recognizes that the large majority of past due customers are good, and that delinquent accounts represent lost sales opportunities. Customers who are past due may well take their next order elsewhere rather than deal with a vendor/supplier with whom they are delinquent. Keep customers current and you keep them buying. Mishandled "collections" may bring in the money, but may also create the loss of customers.

A successful client relayed to me, over a cup of coffee, that when she was a college student she had received a phone call from a bill collector working for a major retailer. She was past due and did pay the bill, but she has never again stepped back into one of the retailer's stores and twenty years later she still resents the way with which she was dealt. Even more problematic than an affluent customer boycotting a retailer is the loss of a commercial customer's goodwill; there are fewer of them and they have generational memory.

In Closing
Things are changing. More and more business executives are coming to see the role of Credit and A/R management as a sales support function. DSO and % bad debt still have a place as a way to gauge cash flow and losses, but the performance of the credit function is better measured by % of dollars applied for approved…and exceeded and by the % of A/R current to 30 days past due.

Who knows the day may come when some big , friendly, lovable dog without a name comes to be called "Credit Manager".

This article was provided by our partner, Abe WalkingBear Sanchez.

The Author
Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of
cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles. A hard hitting and fast paced speaker, he brings life and energy to a critical business function whose true potential has yet to be realized by most businesses.

Atradius, Irish Institute of Credit Management, TEC, CU, CSU, Texas A&M, National Association of Credit Management - Kansas City, HTDA, BCFM, Poli Hi Solidur, Skinner Nurseries, Deardens, Rain Bird, STAFDA, IBM, Wisconsin Credit Association, are but a few of the groups, schools, companies and associations for whom WalkingBear has conducted programs.

WalkingBear can be reached through:
A/R Management Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 457
Canon City, CO 81215
(719) 276-0595
email: abe@armg-usa.com
www.armg-usa.com

Have a great week!

-Mark Deo