The Howard Group

My Blog Has Moved To 'www.ChiefBizGuru.com'

2011-01-20T06:56:00.000-08:00

The Business Coach: The Hobbyist's Level of Commitment

2011-01-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

Introduction

I understand that for some reason you don't think of yourself as a business person, but you are. You made money at this thing right? There are a couple of things you can do to get this thing up and going, but you will have to begin thinking like a business owner rather than a hobbyist.

Everybody has insecurities and uncertainties when dealing with this sort of thing, just take it one step at a time. Focus on improving each area before moving onto the next.

What you are going to need at this stage of your business falls into one of six areas:

Level of Commitment
Your Offering
Your Marketing Message
Lead Generation
Sales
Partnerships

In order to get a business moving in the right direction you need to look at the six areas with me. It really is going back and fixing how you think about business fundamentals.

What is You Level of Commitment?

You need to make up your mind regarding your standard. You must decide that you are going to be a workaholic for the next three to five years. This is an undertaking of 12 to 15 hour days for six days a week. If you are not sure than figure it out. One thing to keep in mind is that your life should be different after you make the decision. Your time should be consumed with your business. It's not like you can choose to start a business and continue spending your time hanging out with your buddies or spend time watching TV. Your commitment should be a 'magnificent obsession'. If you can't embrace this type of commitment you are not ready to start a business.

Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a $500 value.

The Business Coach: The Cost Of Doing Business

2011-01-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

Alright so you are attempting to have that conversation again with Bob regarding his changing needs. No matter how much you have tried to make that personal connection and add value to Robert, he has been indifferent and seems to be on the fence about a few things. In your opinion he has a different agenda then he leads on. Reading in between the lines you are convinced he sees your solution as ubiquitous and something that can only be differentiated on price. You know the moment you are not able to meet his needs at commodity prices he will shop elsewhere.

What are the costs associated with doing business with Bob long-term?
How much is your time worth? and how much time does Robert require?
If you want to make your company profitable (long-term implication) can you afford to continue to pay Bob's monthly costs (both in time and discounts) with enough profit to justify him as a customer?
What is Bob paying you to add value?
Is he paying you less than you pay for him?

Have you ever heard of firing a customer?

If a customer is not interested in how you differentiate yourself, your company, and your solution; you are in a losing battle. I would caution you to consider his costs. Don’t get caught by the Wal-mart effect especially if Bob has the pocket book of a fortune 1000 company. Perhaps it is time to consider an exit strategy.

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The Executive Coach: From Traditional to Social Leadership

2011-01-12T14:16:00.001-08:00

You always wanted to lead.

Why not now?

The landscape for effective leadership is transforming before your very eyes. Those with the most ideas win; throw enough crap against the wall and eventually something will stick.

Social Media has put a new twist on leadership and it is as follows:

Our measure of influence determines the progression and impact of our leadership. The impact of our leadership is determined by our methods of syndication. Syndication is measured by our voice, content, or message and route of distribution. The methods of distribution determine who hears the message and influences others to listen to it.

A leader must engage in the development of her voice and should work to provide thought leadership for her constituents and then work to self-promote to build upon her following.

In the beginning, social success is determined by quantity of content; in a beginner's world quantity beats quality every time. Don't be such a perfectionist throw crap against the wall.

Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a $500 value.

The OCD ADHD CEO: Hey Michelangelo, CALM DOWN! (7)

2011-01-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching | Client Fulfillment

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

Take a deep breath we are almost finished!

Let's talk commitment...

Client Fulfillment

An exchange of value for its monetary equivalent is the least you should be prepared to offer. There are five precepts, in which your brand integrity can shine. Integrity as it relates to the 'brand experience' you create is a very simple concept of congruence and commitment.

Precept #1: The Process Addiction

As a consumer my expectation with every company I do business with is to have a consistent experience. As most consumers I have no preference towards spontaneity. I prefer not to have my coffee served cold if I didn't order it that way or to watch half of a movie at my local theater. I desire to have the same brand experience that I had grown accustom to. For each brand that I have grown accustomed to business processes exist with the aim of delivering that value. Likewise when a company forsakes to provide an experience market share is thwarted.

For your intent and purpose consider the consistency of a successful franchise. Well established franchises exemplify value add processes. You will have the same brand experience in your home town as you will in China. Value in this context is not something you purchase rather it's an experience that will cause positive emotions to emerge. So, how about it Boss-what emotions are your processes conjuring up?

Precept #2: Integrity In Your Service

Let's get you on the right page. Regardless of how you perceive your offering you will always be in a service industry by delivering a brand experience. The sooner you realize this the better. You have the capacity to map out and script the type of brand experience that would be most profitable to the organization. So by your own ingenuity dictate what prospects and customers feel about your brand (97% of the time) at every touch point.

Precept #3: Integrity In How You Deliver Your Offering

Alright lets talk delivery. The fashion, in which you deliver your solution should be differentiated from your product or service. How do you deliver value in your approach before you ever get to your solution? by design of course. So, what is your plan to engage your audience while you deliver your solution? This becomes a great opportunity for branding. If delivering an experience is the goal then figure it out. Your success or failure begins and ends with you and it's always a matter of creativity and drive.

Precept #4: Integrity In Your Solution

The challenge for you may not be in solving problems or driving to a cost effective solution but it might be in the instance your solution doesn't work or your pricing fails to be cost effective because of complications or negligence. Allow me to assume that since you are in business that you are learning the valuable lesson of under promising and over delivering on your commitments. You know as an executive (perhaps as the only one in your company) that the words 'contingency plan' should be part of your vocabulary and business practice regardless of how promising things look. What happens to your brand experience when (not 'if') you can't solve what you committed to solving? Can you still deliver value to a disappointed customer? The value is found in the question: 'How?' Ya think it would help your brand?

Precept #5: Integrity In All Customer Touch Points

Now we are talking about doing things intentionally aren't we? This is too much commitment for spontaneity but just enough for process management. It may be more difficult when you began relying on others to provide a brand experience; however, it is possible to deliver consistent value at every customer touch point if you map it out. Consider a few touch points that are found in every business: sales, customer service, customer support, account management, and human resources. So, where does the action happen for you and your business? and what is the best way to respond to that kind of action consistently?

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Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a value of $500.

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The OCD ADHD CEO: Hey Michelangelo, CALM DOWN! (6)

2011-01-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Lead Conversion

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

The Gift of Perspective

Please remember being a perfectionist is always a matter of correct perspective. Just as the golden rule would take a different perspective if you were a masochist, so with being a perfectionist both should be a matter of correct perspective. You could be a perfectionist about all the wrong things and lose your shirt in the process.

We are almost finished with this series so either you are elated or frustrated, I hope the latter.

If you are skilled in generating interest but you are terrible at converting that interest into a sale than we have a problem. Learn to get the sale. While you are in the trenches fighting for and fighting with prospects keep in mind there are three universal concepts that will assist you in making progress with your lead conversion: think process, understand the selling concept, and ask for the sale.

Think 'Process'

Where Would You Like Them?

Think strategically about what path is most effective for your prospect, what are the steps along that path, and tools you will need to lead them from point 'A' to point 'Z'. Please note that any path should began with brand awareness and should end with perfect customer engagement. If people don't know you exist they will not know that you can fulfill their needs. How do you propose to do this? Once individuals are aware of your brand how do you plan on delivering value up front? What small sales do you need to get them to a larger monetary sale? and how do you plan to keep your customers engaged in the aftermarket?

Concepts To Consider:

This process of getting a prospect to trail along until they decide to purchase needs to happen one focused step at a time. You shouldn't focus on getting to stage 'Z' (making a large monetary sales) when a professional is only on stage 'A' (visiting your blog/website for the first time). Decide to complete each step for the prospect. When I cold call a prospect my first goal is not to get the sale or to even get the appointment, rather my goal is to ask the right person a very simple question. If the prospect engages me in a conversation regarding my question then my second goal is to speak to her on her terms. My third goal is to set an appointment. My over all goal is to stay with my prospect and to read into her needs so that I can add value, not to manipulate her into a decision she isn't quite ready to make.

Remember In Business: 'Slow Is Fast'

If you rush a prospect in making a decision that she is not ready for she may bail at the last moment or she may commit then be the worst customer you have ever had. Whatever position she falls in understand she will consume your time and steal your time from sales ready prospects who will be great customers. What costs more: A customer who you have to babysit or a customer who is low maintenance? Customers cost money! Consider customer acquisition costs and how you can be smart about your process. A goal in business is to purchase customers at low costs. If you are busy rushing through your process you will miss all the signs and end up spending more money on that customer then you have to spend. Take your time! Do it right the first time.

Ask For The Sale

Although asking for the sale seems daunting at times it may be less daunting than you think. Asking for the sale in this context is getting to the close of any step in your process. A 'Yes' decision from a prospect can be a decision to download a free e-book, a commitment to a phone conversation, a decision to opt in your emailing list, as well as a decision to make a purchase of some sort. In other words a 'Yes' decision is a person deciding they will move forward in a process you have created. As experts say: everything is sales. Began with your goal in mind. Be bold and creative and ask for the close.

Selling Concept

It is important that you understand what your potential consumers are seeking. What are your competitors offering? The value add that a competitor is offering prospects may be a telltale sign regarding something you are missing. When you converse with prospects; whether it's through your web presence or through a sales presentation, what are you telling them? What you think you provide and what prospects think they need may be misaligned. Study semantics and concepts of each prospect; as with a romance she will tell you when she is ready to take the next step. The key is to keep her talking.

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The OCD ADHD CEO: Hey Michelangelo, CALM DOWN! (5)

2010-12-31T23:18:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Lead Generation

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

First Things First

How are we doing with the perfectionist stuff? and by 'we' I mean YOU! I hope by now that you have become a little more friendly toward constituents, customers, investors...you know people. You know it is in your best interest to move your perfectionist-ism off of things and direct it toward toward taking care of your people. After all managing and leading in a business is getting results through people. Don't get me wrong being a perfectionist is not bad it is just not always productive and often may lead to counter productive measures. If this was the case of a "little" over the top I wouldn't be presenting a business series on your OCD tendencies.

Just remember "You are not normal", the average person doesn't read this stuff or take advantage of opportunities as you have. You have goals and a vision for your business. If you have done your job as an executive than learn to let go. Just like a parent must let go when the children are all grown up, an executive must let go once his business has matured. If you know letting go will be disastrous then you should keep reading this series, and hope to amend your errors in judgment.

Okay, no more deviations:

Macro-Perspective On Lead Generation

If you want prospects to become interested in your offering you will be confronted by a series of choices. These choices will lead you to develop marketing or lead generation campaigns. Lead generation activities range from good ol' fashion cold calling and networking to savvy online marketing such as pay per click and social networking and everything in between. If you are a small shop or a sole proprietor with a small staff not every lead generation activity is going to provide a return on investment, therefore not every lead generation activity is worth pursuing. You must evaluate your financial restraints, talents, and time restraints before understanding what direction will be most profitable for your business. These three areas will have the most influence on your lead generation and small business success.

Financial Restraints

I believe the first area you should consider is your budget, if you don't have one create one for marketing. If you forsake creating a budget for marketing you may end up spending more then you can afford to. Without budgetary restraints your small business will not survive. Placing spending limits will help you to do more with less and it will push you to be more productive with you financial decisions.

What can you afford to do? If you have a larger budget for marketing you may consider outsourcing some of your marketing needs such as sales or SEO for your online presence. If you have a smaller budget you will have to invest your energy in lead generation activities that are inexpensive such as cold calling or networking, if done correct the former just needs a phone and internet connection and the latter needs a place, people, and your willingness to begin a pleasant conversation to evaluate if there are needs you can meet.

Talents

To posses a talents in business is to have a specialized knowledge, skill, and experience. A talent in lead generation is valuable and can be used to create the most leverage in your business. If you are better with people in person you may consider brushing up on your networking skills, if you have a wonderful speaking voice you may consider cold calling. If you are much more of a long-term strategic player then you may consider spending your time creating profitable partnerships and learning new skills toward internet marketing and long term-strategy.

Time Restraints

As you grow interested in specific lead generation activities and marketing campaigns related to your talents please understand it takes time to master one lead generation strategy. In other words it takes time to get your sales pitch down and to get prospects in your sales pipeline from demonstration to purchase or it takes time to understand SEO strategies and to gain exposure. In business time is money, so do your homework and consider based on your talents, financial restraints, time restraints and chosen lead generation activity what your ramp up time is. Remember in business things cost twice as much and take twice as long, so be prepared.

Happy New Year!

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Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a value of $500.

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The Spiritual CEO: Our Commitment

2010-12-28T22:33:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching | Spirituality

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

Divorce

Jesus: It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

The central theme here is not marriage but spirituality. Jesus doesn't start his conversation with an explanation but a command and a consequence. It is important that we consider the 'Why?' to his statement.

Was Jesus attempting to reveal the spiritual nature of relationships?

Intimate relationships are mirrors to our inner world. Relationships will reflect on our self-hatred or self-love, on our spirituality or carnality. Ongoing romance has the potential to grow our capacity to be spiritual or to be fearful. The fashion, in which Jesus presents the concept of marriage is very basic and uncomplicated. If a person is willing to put away a relationship that has given much in the way of healing, service, dedication, obedience, and the nurturing of mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs, then her commitment in other relationships is unstable. Relationships that carry less weight then a marriage will suffer as a consequence of instability of character and spirituality.

Spirituality is tested by the positive and negative waves of a meaningful relationship. The moment a person commits herself romantically to another human being is the moment she begins to discover the depth of her own spirituality. Will she continue to love, forgive, and nurture in the light of difficulty and unrest?

Let's consider a few thoughts about marriage and the inferences and implications if spirituality is our goal:

Indicators Of A Whole Person

No institution exemplifies love, wholeness, union, and stability (elements that define spirituality) more than a healthy marriage.

Personification Of Love

Marriage is a personification of love. A persons' hidden character displays whether she is capable of loving herself and then extending that love to her husband. If she is capable of loving another person the marriage will shine and if she fails then marriage will serve as a crushing blow.

The Secret To Truth And Happiness In Marriage

What God attempts to teach us in marriage are spiritual principles. Every moment is created for you to extend yourself in love, to forgive, and to withhold judgment. When two lovers learn to do this they will not only discover a healthy marriage, happiness and fulfillment, but spirituality.

The holy instant is the Holy Spirit's most useful learning device for teaching you love's meaning. For its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge. Judgment becomes impossible without the past, for without it you do not understand anything. You would make no attempt to judge, because it would be quite apparent to you that you do not understand what anything means. You are afraid of this because you believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. Yet I assure you that without the ego, all would be love.

The past is the ego's chief learning device, for it is in the past that you learned to define your own needs and acquire methods for meeting them on your own terms. We have said that to limit love to part of the Sonship is to bring guilt into your relationships, and thus make them unreal. If you seek to separate out certain aspects of the totality and look to them to meet your imagined needs, you are attempting to use separation to save you. How, then, could guilt not enter? For separation is the source of guilt, and to appeal to it for salvation is to believe you are alone. To be alone is to be guilty. For to experience yourself as alone is to deny the Oneness of the Father and His Son, and thus to attack reality.

-ACIM

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Conversations: Social Media Talk

2010-12-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

I am a proponent of getting out there and conversing with clients, partners, and other stakeholders about best practice. Conversations have a wonderful way of weeding through the irrelevant; after all I get the 'the best of'' straight from our stakeholders. Professionals are invited to a round table event to discuss small business issues. These talks provide tremendous insight into small business and help us keep our fingers on the pulse of our stakeholder's preferences, thoughts, and needs.

I expounded on a few thoughts for you during that discussion:

JD: Talk about social technologies used as a vehicle to launch a product, brand, or service.

Chief Biz Guru: Any social media platform or technology would work wonderfully in launching a product, service, or brand. The key is to engage individuals or businesses that fit your target market before attempting to launch or roll out any new product, service, or brand image.

Content

Education has always been the root to success not only for emerging markets but for emerging businesses. The world is hungry for opportunity therefore great content is effective in building brand awareness. It is appropriate to build a following through content creation before launching anything. I feel the more effective question to ask is: What social media platform can be best used for my brand, product or service? This question infers that each business model is different. So, the original question can be answered in wild generalizations. This question just proposed beckons a specific understanding of a business plan and goals.

Tools used to build communities around your content first and brand second may include:

100zakladok
2 Tag
2linkme
A1-Webmarks
Add.io
Adfty
Adifni
aero
All My Faves
Amazon
Amen Me!
Aol Lifestream
AOL Mail
Arto
Aviary Capture
Baang
Baidu
Bebo
Bentio
BiggerPockets
Bit.ly
bizSugar
Bleetbox
Blinklist
Blip
Blogger
Bloggy
Blogmarks
Blogtrottr
Blurpalicious
Boardlite
Bobrdobr
BonzoBox
BookmarkedByUs
BookmarkingNet
Bookmarky.cz
Bookmerken
Bordom
Box.net
Brainify
Bryderi
BuddyMarks
Buzzzy
Camyoo
Care2
Chiq
Cirip
CiteULike
ClassicalPlace
Clickazoo
clp.ly
Cndig
Colivia.de
Communicate
Connotea
COSMiQ
Delicious
DesignBump
Designmoo
Dig This Webhost
DigaCultura
Digg
Diggita
diglog
Digo
Digzign
Diigo
Dipdive
doMelhor
Dosti
DotNetKicks
DotNetShoutout
DotShare
Douban
Drimio
Dropjack
Dwellicious
dzone
edelight
EFactor
eKudos
elefanta.pl
Email
Embarkons
euCliquei
Evernote
extraplay
EzySpot
Fabulously40
Facebook
Fai Informazione
Fark
Farkinda
Fashiolista
Fashion BURNER
FAVable
Faves
favlog
Favoriten.de
Favoritus
Flaker
Floss.pro
Folkd
FollowTags
forceindya
FreeDictionary
Fresqui
FriendFeed
Friendster
funP
fwisp
Gabbr
Gacetilla
Gamekicker
GiveALink
GlobalGrind
Gmail
Good Noows
Google
Google Buzz
Google Reader
Google Translate
Gravee
GreaterDebater
Grono.net
Grumper
Haber.gen.tr
Hacker News
Hadash Hot
Hatena
Hazarkor
Healthimize
Hedgehogs.net
HelloTxt
hipstr
Hitmarks
Hot Bookmark
Hotklix
Hotmail
HTML Validator
Hyves
ideaREF!
Identica
iGoogle
ihavegot
Instapaper
iOrbix
iSociety
iWiW
Jamespot
Jisko
JoliPrint
Jumptags
KaBlog
Kaboodle
Kaevur
Kipup
KiRTSY
Kledy
Kommenting
La tafanera
Laaikit
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Librerio
Link Ninja
Link-a-Gogo
LinkedIn
Links Gutter
LinkShares
Linkuj.cz
Livefavoris
LiveJournal
LockerBlogger
Logger24.com
Lynki
Mail.ru
Markme
Mashbord
Mawindo
Meccho
meinVZ
Mekusharim
Memori.ru
Menéame
Messenger
Mindbodygreen
Mister Wong
Mixx
Moemesto.ru
mototagz
mRcNEtwORK
Multiply
myAOL
mylinkvault
Myspace
N4G
NetLog
Netvibes
Netvouz
NewsMeBack
NewsTrust
Newsvine
Nujij
OKNOtizie
oneview
OnGoBee
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Osmosus
Oyyla
Packg
pafnet.de
PDF Online
PDFmyURL
PhoneFavs
PimpThisBlog
Ping.fm
Planypus
Plaxo
Plurk
Pochval.cz
PopEdition
Posteezy
Posterous
Prati.ba
Print
PrintFriendly
Pusha
QRF.in
Quantcast
Qzone
Read It Later
receeve.it
Reddit
Rediff MyPage
RedKum
RideFix
Scoop.at
Segnalo
Sekoman
Select2Gether
Shaveh
SheToldMe
ShirIntarIn
Simpy
Sina Weibo
Slashdot
SMI
SodaHead
Sonico
Speedtile
Sphinn
SpinSnap
Spoken To You
sportpost
springpad
Spruzer
Squidoo
Startaid
Startlap
Story Follower
studiVZ
Stuffpit
StumbleUpon
Stumpedia
Stylehive
Surfpeople
Svejo
Symbaloo
TagMarks.de
Tagvn
Tagza
tarpipe
TellMyPolitician
The Web Blend
Thinkfinity
ThisNext
Throwpile
Tip'd
TopSiteler
Transferr
Tulinq
Tumblr
Tusul
Tvinx
TweetMeme
Twitter
TwitThis
Typepad
Urlaubswerk
Viadeo
Virb
Visitez Mon Site
Vkontakte
vybrali SME
Vyoom
Webnews
Whois Lookup
Windy Citizen
WireFan
Wordpress
Worio
Wykop
Xanga
XING
Y! Bookmarks
Y! Buzz
Y! Mail
Yammer
Yardbarker
Yemle
Yigg
Yoolink
Yorumcuyum
Youblr.
Youbookmarks
YouMob
Yuuby
Zakladok.net
Zanatic
ZicZac
Zootool

Effectiveness

Efforts should remain strategic and a person should consider limiting the platforms she uses, otherwise it may be difficult to track real results to improve effectiveness. Too many social media platforms may cannibalize a brand if individuals are not careful.

Business Model

The television show American Idol is a great example of creating a following first and then delivering music brands second. This show has launched many multi-million dollar brands. The shows community has tremendous buying power. This potential revenue stream is available to anyone who can create a similar type of following on or off-line.

JD: What made social media a more appropriate choice than a ‘traditional’ marketing approach?

Chief Biz Guru: Online marketing has only captured 16%-18% of the world's market (advertising industry), which tells me that there is tremendous growth potential. For most of the world a traditional approach to marketing is the most effective platform for marketing dollars.

Tradition Vs. Internet

Although we as consumers perceive internet dollars as a transition in business as we know it, it is only a niche market on a global scale. What exemplifies tradition are 2010 numbers. As we end this year we should note that it was highest grossing year for retailers at 520 billion dollars in revenue, in which internet sales were only 11% of that. Using social media as a platform to sell products and services is a growing niche of the internet but only a small fraction of the 11%.

The Social Media Niche

After all our social media focus is still on sales, right? Don't take your eyes off the prize, which is revenue first in the form of a return on investment.

In this social media niche people want a relationship with brands, value delivered upfront before deciding to pay for anything, transparency, and through social media these needs are met. The Gallup Organization has done numerous surveys on customer engagement based on their findings I would argue the more prospects or customers are engaged the more loyal they will be to a brand. Social media is a wonderful platform to engage those prospects and customers early in the sales cycle and in the aftermarket.

Would You Like To Have A FREE BUSINESS COACHING SESSION?

Having your FREE evaluation with a business coach is a value of $500.

Just Fill Out The Form Below:

Conversations: Social Media Context

2010-12-27T00:58:00.001-08:00

Business Coaching

By: Santi Chacon

Business Coach

Every professional should have many conversations in his or her career with associates and constituents regarding business, psychologies, and trends; new philosophies will be created and most important new self-concepts will be forged.

This Was A Conversation That I Felt Presented New Insights:

I had a bit of an epiphany today... or maybe it is better described as a distillation of all this crap I have been sorting through.

The ONLY question everyone seems to be asking about Social Media Marketing is: 'How do I use it to make money?'

The short answer is this: social media marketing is NO different than traditional marketing...it just provides more venues and high scalability.

My personal definition of the role/intent of marketing is simple: Marketing's job is to get identify prospects and get them to (figuratively) raise their hand and say 'that looks like something I might be interested in.' Pretty basic right?

Somewhere along the way, somebody decided that social media marketing was going to change the dynamics of how people buy (and how companies sell.)

THIS IS WRONG!

Can you imagine walking up to someone at a networking event, introducing yourself, and then offering them your services at a special 50% discount if they act now?

Of course not...we all know that networking events represent an opportunity to meet new people and possibly get their business card so you can potentially schedule time to meet with them and get to know them better.

Guess what? Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, etc are no different thank networking events - with the obvious exception that you don't have to put on pants and endure cheap wine and crappy appetizers. Oh yeah...and he potential for scale is enormous! (e.g. you might be able to interact with 10 people at a networking event but you can message the crap out of your Facebook peeps!)

The diagram above is a work in progress but basically I am trying to integrate social media marketing into a framework that anyone can understand.... Please share your thoughts.

Response:

To be successful the objective in marketing needs to be segmentation. Any marketing effort (this includes social networking/Media) along with branding, should reach out far enough to find the low hanging fruit, or to those who are currently in the market for what the organization has to offer. If you do not think of it this way it will be impossible to justify your time investment or to create an ROI. Companies don’t buy goods and services people do; social networking is about reaching out to people. Individuals who are reached out to can open doors for you and perhaps say ‘yes’ to your product or service.

Social Marketing embraces the concept of lead generation through branding and brand awareness; especially if we are seeking a ratio of prospects to closed sales as you spoke of in other conversations. If we are smart about business and become personal as we maximize exposure through social media, we can reach the low hanging fruit. If our intention is to segment those in the market today along with those who will be in the market tomorrow through social media, then ramping up toward our sales goals will be inevitable. The professionals, who are not able to get to the low hanging fruit using social media, shouldn’t think it’s impossible but should aim to develop necessary skills. This is not to say that we do not attempt to build relationships through long-term branding. An observation of quantum mechanics states that 'when our perception of a thing changes the very nature of that thing will change.' It is merely about breaking any limitation in our self-image and about the setting of our intention.

It really is about networking smart enough so that when you tell someone about your special they will decide to purchase it. Timing is everything in business, get in front of the right person at the right time and they will say yes. The key is to get in front of enough people all the time.

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The Business Coach: A No Brainnnerrrr

2010-12-27T00:43:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

If we are in business for ourselves or with someone else, there are studies you can take on, in which will create great momentum. These subjects are: 'The strengths Movement" (The Gallup Organization) as well as The Keirsey Method (David Keirsey). Both would seem to come out of the Positive Psychology Movement, because of similarities in their themes. You can work with these tools hand in hand.

Transformations

While we were sleeping organizations have transition from big and bulky to flat from centralized to decentralized. These businesses have moved from authoritarian leadership to authentic leadership, from hierarchy to teams, where authority is based on consensus. Companies have moved from thinking of people as a capital expense to people as a capital investment. They moved from thinking people had produced systems, products, or services that were thought to be the competitive advantage, to understanding that people are the competitive advantage. The organizations with this curious yet fascinating infrastructure have learned to run like gazelles. All this is due to their talent other wise known as their people.

Discovery Of Discipline Mavericks

A laser focus on selecting the right candidates and with employee development infers that the attempts at seeking perfect candidates should not be sought through methods that promote generalizations but through methods that promote meaningful specifics. Executives should discover based on a person's idiosyncratic neurological patterns (that's specific!) the right prospect for the role. As your process begins to discover the disciplined mavericks of the business world you would do well to create an environment that nurtures and motivates their genius.

When all is said and done it would seem that your people were custom tailored to excel at their roles in your company.

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The Spiritual CEO: The Journey Into the Ego (1)

2010-12-25T13:43:00.001-08:00

Executive Coach | Spirituality

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

The Two Thought-Systems

Two thought systems exist in our lives. One thought system is based on the will or sovereignty of God the other is based on fear. The thought system that is based on fear is called the ego (in the bible it's called 'the old man' or 'the flesh') and the thought system that is based on the will of God is knowledge or truth (under one law, the law of love or God. - ACIM).

The ego's thought system is formed in one of two ways, either, we model unhealthy behaviors in our environment or we make decisions based on what we perceive to be emotional voids or personal attacks. The symptomatic actions that derive from our mis-perceptions are products of a deep rooted belief system that is embedded in our subconscious mind. These actions are played out simply because we don't understand our "truth" or true nature in God.

What we discover later about these actions is that the emotions attached to them become an addiction, in which become self perpetuating. On this note St. Paul states: "The acts of the sinful nature (ego) are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God".

It is this type of addictive behavior that become the illusions to our truth. We mistake physical sensation and fulfillment as the only reality.

Our Three Gifts

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'there it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."
God determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'
The third gift is the realization of the first two gifts. All along he was with us, and all along we were in Him; and we have been guided by his hand. God is always within us and we inside of him it is what we call: 'OmniPresence'. There is nowhere we can go where God is not. - The Psalmist uttered: "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there".

The Beginning Of Our Way Out

So, it is here we must begin our journey, to understand the way out of what some have described as a dream or unreality. The ego is simply an extension of our projections, based on a legacy that was left behind by what the bible called the first Adam. The Garden of Eden, or the pre-separation condition, was a state of mind in which nothing was needed. When Adam listened to the "lies of the serpent," all he heard was untruth. You do not have to continue to believe what is not true unless you choose to do so.

-ACIM

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The Life Coach: Resilience

2010-12-23T07:53:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

Alexandria, Alexandria, Alexandria

It started with my friends two year old, feeling a bit of fatigue. Soon Deanna came home a little frantic; Alex had a fever. We quickly ran the bathtub water, cooler than usual, to cool her down. This continued on throughout the evening; the little girl crying out to mommy, for help. Alex and I both hoping that her mom somehow had the secret to health and well being.

This went on for the entire week, jolting awake by Alex's sobs and running bath water to cool her. When Alex's fever subsided a bit, to something mom was happy with she would lay her back down to hopefully find rest.

In observing this drama unfold, I became aware that when Alex felt better in between the ups and downs of her fever, she was swept away by a cheerful state of alacrity. She asked (in only the way a two year could; mumbling) to go outside to play, she wanted to enjoy the freedom of being two; in that wonderful carefree way. She wanted to run around and to enjoy life once again; such a beautiful little soul. In my heart I knew her resilience was something we all could take note of.

Thoughts

How many of us choose to enjoy life? Or to re-awaken our freedom to live carefree right after we experience an unmet expectation a heart break, an emotional interruption or detour? How many of us stand up with great alacrity and get on with life with the enthusiasm to live the life we were meant to lead?

Would it be true to say that we fall into the temptation of wallowing in the mire of our situation? or allowing ourselves to be swept away by the mellow drama of our self-pity?

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Viktor Frankle

When it comes down to it, it really is about how we respond to life, and our attitude along the way.

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The Executive Coach: Simple Leadership Theory

2010-12-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

The Engaging Leader

We live in a world system that is highly governed by influence. Unmistakably, those with the most influence receive the most privilege. It is those who have learned to govern by influence who become ‘Leaders’. If we are in the business world, we must learn how to be thought leaders and how to grow in congruence with our unique voice.

Simply put, the role of leadership is to create a unique vision, voice, to develop a character that is congruent with that voice, and to find those who desire to follow our standard.

Our goal must be to move from transactional and authoritative leadership to authentic, principled centered, transformational, and servant leadership. All this means is that we should move away from ‘Just doing our job’ or ‘fulfilling our responsibilities’ (transactional leadership) or ‘calling all the shots’ and ‘micro-managing’ (authoritative leadership) to a leader that acts on his understanding of guiding principles such as the law of reciprocity, the law of love, locus of control, as well as sound business ethics and principles (principle centered leadership). We should move closer to being a leader who comes with his warts and all; who is not afraid to fail in front of constituents; one who shows his humanity and works on the congruence of his character (authentic leadership). We should choose a character goal of being the leader who is driven by his passion, and vision to be a catalyst for the transformation of his business (transformational leadership), a leader who dedicates himself to serving and who labors to contribute and add value to his constituents and his customers (servant leadership).

People want to follow someone that they want to follow; be someone they want to follow.

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The OCD ADHD CEO: Hey Michelangelo, CALM DOWN! (4)

2010-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Business Finance

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

This Is Not Your Grandmother's Finance

Don't complicate it! have more money coming in than going out, keep cash reserves for a rain day or an economic burst, know when you reach your financial cap on a product or service and set market share goals, and diversify in other industries.

Good Accounting

Positive cash flow is a big challenge with smaller companies. Negative cash flow is symptomatic of faulty marketing or no marketing at all. Being a great marketer takes experience. If you haven't forged the experience to make your company profitable just know that marketing is a skill that can be learned or outsourced.

Stewardship

Great financial stewardship should require three things. The first concept is to save what you can, the second is spend slowly, and third create more income streams within reasonable time. Consider the illustration of having a tub (this represents your business), with holes (these represent accounts payable/debt) and running faucets (these represent accounts receivable/earning opportunities). The goal of the business finance game is to turn on as many faucets and plug as many holes up, so that the water (cash) steadily increases.

Water

Your first financial obligation to stakeholders is to grow cash reserves. Cash has the benefit of keeping your lights on and keeping jobs i.e. buying you time when you are racing against the clock to produce results. You will have rainy days in business maybe even rainy years brought about by unexpected market or economic conditions. Be prepared! Save at least two years worth of of your company's expenses.

Holes

An executive needs to be disciplined in spending, if you find yourself making poor purchasing decisions I have a few suggestions you can apply before making a purchase:

Measure and Document Your Return on Investment
Document Your Opportunity Costs
Create a Purchasing Board

Faucets

Set market share goals. Focus on penetrating target markets until you meet your objective. As your business experiences steady growth began focusing a percentage of your resources on creating a related subsidiary. A key to creating a successful subsidiary is to leverage current strengths i.e. knowledge, experience, customers, vendors, partners etc. in gaining traction in your new niche.

Examples Of Related Industries

A few examples of closely related industries would be Telecommunications and PBX (Long Distance and Phone Systems), Telecommunications and Teleconferencing (Long Distance and Audio Conferencing), Hosted Software Solutions and Stand Alone Software Solutions, Business Consulting and Business Coaching, and Business Consulting and Information Products (reports, books, booklets, e-books, subscription based publications online and offline etc.). All these related businesses can be leveraged using the same resources.

This type critical thought can be a little tricky if you are not familiar with it, so if you have any questions I have free answers.

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The OCD ADHD CEO: Hey Michelangelo, CALM DOWN! (3)

2010-12-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Market Research

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

...Okay, I'll Give In

Hey, I just had an earth shattering revelation 'If you are going to be fixated and OCD about something obsess over your people' Wow! you read it here first. After all say it with me, "Everything is marketing!" Your brand is on the line. Start a cult that revolves around your brand and began from the inside out; the best companies always do. If you're gonna be a perfectionist you might as well make sure you choose the right thing to be a perfectionist about otherwise you'll look like an idiot. No point in being a perfectionist in something that has no value or consequence (hmmmm, now there's a thought). Just don't lose sight of what is truly important.

Enough Of The Shenanigans!

So far we covered management and branding, now we are going to cover market research. If branding was a jigsaw puzzle market research data when interpretated would be the picture on the box. In other words you have no idea what your brand should look like to your key stakeholders unless you took a hard look at the box (market research data). Many executives attempt to guess in this area, some become lucky and have successful careers but some guess and find themselves in bankruptcy, the choice is yours.

The Market Research

Ultimately, as a business owner you should have located some type of industry news source with market data i.e. journals, blogs, research articles, etc. If you read regularly on your industry this market research stuff won't seem so overwhelming. Ongoing industry research will provide a landscape to measure customer data against and as a consequence provide a holistic depiction of your companies advantages and disadvantages.

Macro-Market Research

The first area of market research is going to be embedded in your business plan. This is nothing more then a business prediction based on your interpretation of data measured against your ideals. These are predictions on how economic forces and conditions will affect your offering and vise versa. After examining your ideals and your environment you'll gather experienced professionals to assist (if possible) and you'll start to develop your offering, beginning your long journey toward profitability.

Micro-Market Research

The second type of market research is based on your real-time response from key stake holders i.e. front-line employees and customers.

In the beginning, as you make your first five thousand cold calls you have painful conversations with prospects and forge through your eureka moments bloodied and battered. You began to understand your offering through the eyes of the market as you receive push back on your value propositions from talkative prospects who explain to you why they need or don't need your product. With the lapse of time and relentless effort your marketing message becomes more relevant; you began to fine tune your offering, your value propositions, and brand. Finally, after years of experience and countless incremental adjustments to your offering and marketing message your sales efforts have transitioned to a sales force.

At the end of the day you retire to your quiet office. You take off your suit jacket and drape it over a seat, you sit back in your overstuffed leather love seat, lean back, and put up your feet on your ottoman. Exhausted you take out your long awaited cigar and clip from a near by humidor and began to reflect on your time on the front-lines.

As a start up executive you had experienced customer acquisition and customer turn over. You had experienced customer loyalty, prospects who were on the fence, while others who became customers soon after continued shopping around in hopes of finding more value or a lower price elsewhere. And even then it was hard to understand the motives of your customers.

How do these ongoing complexities affect your brand?

Now, you have about a dozen sales professionals, a few resellers, account managers, and a solidified marketing strategy that brings thousands of visitors to your website and blog weekly. As a sales person you could barely manage your own sales pipeline and now you are suppose to make assumptions regarding brand experience.

Just as we talked about in our last conversation you should want congruent and consistent branding. You can't have this if you fail to understand how individuals experience your brand. You also don't know what attracts or discourages prospects or customers from converting into raving fans. Oh, sure you may have some notions or have picked up on a few things but unless you have clear cut market data you have only observed the shadows of your business potential.

Market research data should be collected and labored over to understand the implications on your business.

So, roll up your sleeves and get to work and start developing your questionnaires. After all a marriage is so much better when you are intentional. Roll out a marketing plan that puts a questionnaire in a customer's hot little hands every six months and provide incentives for filling out your 'short' questionnaires. Most importantly, when you receive your data began to make appropriate changes and enhancements.

...and to all a good night!

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The Spiritual CEO: Our Passions

2010-12-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Spirituality

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

Driven by the need to excel in our talents and abilities. We dig in our heels and push against the tide of what others said we could not do. Working long hours, we move from smaller wins to larger wins and we began to feel a sense of pride about what we have accomplished. We learn to be competent and skillful and we learn to deliver our product or service more effectively with time. We shortly find that through the lens of our accomplishments we grow less and less tolerant of those around us who do not deliver value to our goals or business.

We have attempted to push our way to the top where a delicate balance between reality and illusion lie. Reality is defined by a mindset that is based on love and illusions are defined by a mindset that is based on fear. The world we slip into is a world where our projected guilt transforms into critical attitudes toward ourselves and others. This is a superficial existence that feeds on strategy, knowledge, drive, and lack of love in its many forms. We have entered an illusion, in which we strive to receive and people are used to satisfy an appetite. In this world it is easy to lose recognition of who our brothers and sisters are beyond a physical body.

Back To Eden

Now the serpent was more subtle and crafty than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And he [Satan] said to the woman, Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit from the trees of the garden, Except the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil and blessing and calamity. And when the woman saw that the tree was good (suitable, pleasant) for food and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apronlike girdles. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? He said, I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Our Perception Of An Exchange

Adam had exchanged his innocence for a perception of God, which made him feel ashamed and afraid. Every day we have an opportunity to make the same judgment of body identification or spiritual identification. We can see ourselves separate and use the body for our appetites or we can see our brothers and sisters for who they truly are.

Jesus: You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who so much as looks at a woman with evil desire for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye serves as a trap to ensnare you or is an occasion for you to stumble and sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be cast into hell (Gehenna). And if your right hand serves as a trap to ensnare you or is an occasion for you to stumble and sin, cut it off and cast it from you.

Jesus speaks of one of the most dangerous of appetites, which is the first step down a path that will consume us. This is a journey, in which each step becomes easier and easier to take enticing our senses into a perpetuated illusion, where lust is mistaken for love; a world where only guilt abides.

The Choice Of Exchange

Communication ends separation. Attack promotes it. The body is beautiful or ugly, peaceful or savage, helpful or harmful, according to the use to which it is put. And in the body of another you will see the use to which you have put yours. If the body becomes a means you give to the Holy Spirit to use on behalf of union of the Sonship, you will not see anything physical except as what it is. Use it for truth and you will see it truly. Misuse it and you will misunderstand it, because you have already done so by misusing it. Interpret anything a art from the Holy Spirit and you will mistrust it. This will lead you to hatred and attack and loss of peace.

Yet all loss comes only from your own misunderstanding. Loss of any kind is impossible. But when you look upon a brother as a physical entity, his power and glory are 'lost' to you and so are yours. You have attacked him, but you must have attacked yourself first. Do not see him this way for your own salvation, which must bring him his. Do not allow him to belittle himself in your mind, but give him freedom from his belief in littleness, and thus escape from yours. As part of you, he is holy. As part of me, you are. To communicate with part of God Himself is to reach beyond the Kingdom to its Creator, through His Voice Which He has established as part of you.

-ACIM

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The Executive Coach: The Relaxation Response

2010-12-12T18:09:00.001-08:00

Executive Coaching and Emotional Intelligence

By: Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

Self-Control

Self-Control is the name of the game when you are leading a competitive organization, and feel the pull of emotions with remnants of distorted voices of broken expectations still ringing in your ears, when things heat up and stakeholders are coming down fast because last quarter's numbers weren’t what they should have been.

Whether you are leading a family, a ministry or business you are leading. And if you are leading objectivity is extremely important, to stay outside your emotions for the moment when your tendency is to be inside your emotions is key. Bottom line when you feel life’s pressures this is the time you need to show your constituents your unshakable character. The rule of thumb the more stressful the situation the more relaxed and objective you need to be.

You may ask: How am I supposed to do this?

Let's start by going over a few concepts first.

Psychosomatic

Psychosomatic denotes that our thinking affects our body for good or for worse. But, the challenge to stay “cool headed” may have its roots deeper than you have imagined. In your earlier years if you had exposure to an insecure or emotional authority figure, whether a boss, a church leader, or a parent where yelling and over reacting was the norm, than ingrained in your neuropathway could be the habit to over emotionalizing or over reacting in times of stress.

Along with loosing our temper is the danger of causing wear and tear internally. When we tend to loose our temper and our heart rate goes up, blood pressure rises. When this is done consistently it can cause micro tears in our arteries, there by giving way for plaque to build up, this may cause heart disease, never mind the ulcers or weakened immune system. These are just a couple of instances of the damaged that can be caused by over emotionalizing. There are more dangers to “loosing control” than a damaged relationship, its damaged health.

Stimulus and Response

Stimulus and response plays a factor in our tendency to react to life’s stressful situations. If I punch you in the nose there is a split moment before you decide to react. If I’m bigger than you, you may consider running, if I’m smaller than you, you might consider hitting me back. This reaction is called the fight or flight response which is highly embedded in our psychology and physiology. The ability to control our destiny lies between this space of stimulus and response. If you control this space you can lead incredible change.

In history those who learned to control this space between stimulus and response had facilitated national and world change i.e. Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa.

The Answer

There is a way out of old patterns and into self-renewal. One of the latest discoveries in psychology was that relaxation has the propensity to heal the body and to restore the wear and tear. Along with relaxation, meditation has been recognized to develop the prefrontal cortex which is the control panel for things like self-control, motor skills, and speech.

When a person meditates they gain the freedom to use the space between stimulus and response constructively. This can be a powerful ally and tool for leadership development. Start by contributing 10-15 minutes a day within 8 weeks, you will notice a great transformation in emotional intelligence, and maturity.

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The Business Coach: The Beginning of a Work in Progress

2010-12-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Small Business

By: Santi Chacon

Business Coach

Posturing

When it comes to starting a part-time business or a business that is running on a shoestring budget your posture and follow-through are everything. The key to success right out of the gate is to work with what you have. Don't obsess over what you don't have. Don’t use anything as an excuse to fail.

If you have the ability and resources to launch a website and marketing materials than do it to whatever degree you can. Extend yourself as far as you will go. If you don’t have the ability to set up a website become professionally creative. Do not use lack as an excuse not to take action on your dreams. You have to develop the skills to move forward. And you develop the skills to move forward by moving forward and persisting until they have developed. Plain and simple, let nothing deter you from action.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that you have to have everything in place in order to succeed. This is not true. I have won business based on a simple text email, from people who have never heard of me, that simply stated my intentions; I have associates that have won business due to their initiative and reputation of excellent service – no marketing materials exist.

Mull it Over

Moving forward with your existing resources is no excuse not to think things through. Make sure you put thought into what you are doing. Think through your marketing information, think on paper or word document, even if you don’t have a marketing budget to invest. This process will help you to think through your value proposition, so you will sound half intelligent when speaking to a prospect.

Now, that you put away all the excuses not to take action and have thought about your offering, put yourself out there. If you don’t have business cards to pass out put an email together and send it out. Look online for a couple of hundred phone numbers to call. Get out there and get your story in front of people consistently. In business timing is everything if you hit a chord with the right professional at the right time you will get business.

If this seems a little too far fetched for you, partner with someone who provides a similar service. Let the CEO or VP of Business Development know that you will sell for them for a commission. This is also known as a reseller agreement. Let them know you will be willing to exchange your efforts for their reputation and collateral. You may find that it is more profitable for you to join them than to go our on your own, especially if they have a reputation in the market place. There are many businesses that create revenue through reselling another companies products or services.

Accidental Success

What happens when you stumble across a potential customer that says yes? Make a connection by providing extra value free of charge to show your worth. The added value could be a free consultation, free trial, white paper, or a free e-book that is related to your services. When you get an opportunity to provide a free assessment or analysis or added value than you have earned the right to ask for the business. After a few of these you will have the confidence and finances to put some marketing materials together. Value needs to be contributed to the fact that your potential sales are not based on marketing materials but on gaining the skills to move forward in the light of difficulty.

Creating Leverage In a Growing Business

As your company becomes moderately successful you may find that you are limited by billable hours. When you can't find time to bring on more clients began investing in creating something you can sell along with your services. Restructure your business model, so that you can sell more of something without having to invest your time in billable hours, raise your prices, partner with others, to create a one stop shop for any related needs you may run into, or work to resell other services to existing clients. These suggestions have the potential of adding credibility to your company.

You are always limited by your lack of imagination and hard work. 'Necessity is the mother of invention.'

Remember to think outside your box and to always posture yourself for business success.

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The OCD ADHD CEO: Hey Michelangelo, CALM DOWN! (2)

2010-12-11T17:22:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Branding

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

Are You Celebrating Progress Instead Of Perfection?

A key to reinforcing behavior is to celebrate, to make things enjoyable, and to have fun. After all you are not normal you should know this because you are the only one you know of that has been wearing business suits since the age of four, has the money from your lemonade stand from the age of six, and started reading the Wall Street Journal at the age of 10. Most people don't strive toward 'the perfect' like you do. Don't miss the fact that you are never alone when it comes to business, so if you can't have fun with this stuff for yourself do it for your employees and your customers. They would rather have someone who is fun loving rather than a stick in the mud.

Let me remind you: As you work on your business please understand 'the perfect' will never exist; however, progress will always exist. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of progress. Just because things are not exactly the way you want them to be doesn't mean things aren't worth while or worthy of celebration. If you can't celebrate the small victories, what can you celebrate?

Progressing Is Very Pragmatic

For my intent and purpose here I will describe progress as taking a few of these concepts we are kicking around and incorporating them into a plan. If there are things that I mentioned that stick out to you treat it as you would a technology you are attempting to implement into your business. An implementation should consist of the following stages: pre-planning, choosing a cross-organizational team to set goals and priorities, re-planning with team feedback, establishing processes and protocols, planning for problems, working with each department toward implementation, training and development for all employees, establishing opened communication, and reinforcement.

Branding

The conceptual foundation for branding is a unique message that is communicated to a specific demographic and psychographic. You want your business to communicate something to a niche market, something that is relevant to them and their needs.

Everything Is Marketing

Your business just doesn't stop at the end of the day but continues to interact with people as you pick up your dry cleaning or go to the super market, as your managers go to the movies or the restaurant down the road, as employees share their day with friends and families, as customer service interacts with customers, as customer support assists a customer in resolving issues, as sales people speak to prospects, as your receptionist greets a visitors as they see your office building for the first time, and as online visitors visit your website or blog.

So, do me a favor, I want you to think through a few things over or maybe just revisit a couple of concepts again. Hey, have fun with this, your right brain will work much better if you do.

Will You Marry Me?

Answer the question: What type of brand is relevant to your target market? Branding speaks to the personality and preferences of prospects and customers. This is why Edward Jones and Charles Schwab look conservative, Starbucks is trendy, and why McDonalds has a playground. What are your potential customers and existing customers looking for when they look for your product or service. You are asking them for a date in hopes of a marriage of some sort, not just a one night stand. What romantic qualities are they looking for in a company?

What Is Your Story?

Be like a novelist; create a character profile for your company. The more in depth your company profile is, the more dynamism others will witness. It will not just be a value proposition but a living and breathing story. Revisit a movie or novel that you enjoyed. Take a hard look at a character, his or her personality, courage, sense of humor, neurosis, and narcissistic tendencies. Notice how the writer hints at pieces of the subconscious, which intrigue you and compel you to know more. The character has a complex past that shapes and molds the characteristics that unfold before you. What do you want to tell your customers and prospects? Do not think 'value proposition' just think 'story'.

Are You On The Same Page?

The next step is to create different dimensions of your story through out each department and streamline the company's personality. From your schwagg to how clean your restrooms are, all communicate your brand. Branding needs congruence. Each department, each employee, and each manager has the opportunity to tell their portion of the story. If you make the story exciting and adventurous, each individual will talk and brand your company. Chant it like a mantra, say it with me: 'Everything Is Marketing'. Be congruent from the website to how employees interact with each other and with customers. You have the opportunity to improve each person's life that comes under your influence. You have a chance to create any impression you want, so make it a lasting one.

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The Executive Coach: Began From The Beginning

2010-12-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching

By: Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

Began From The Beginning

Leadership begins with transforming yourself. First things first, you have to have followers if you want to be a leader. Being a leader denotes, someone is following, even if it’s just you.

The Basics: these thoughts in the form of questions will just help steer you toward the starting gate.

How big is your dream?

Are you results oriented?

Are you action oriented?

How disciplined are you?

Do you invest in becoming better and more knowledgeable in those areas you desire to lead?

How much time do you spend investing in personal or professional development?

What is your purpose as a leader?

What is the vision of your leadership?

Do you have a leader, mentor, or coach to help you to lead?

Are you accountable to someone?

Last Words

When you grow your capacity to lead, you will find more opportunities to lead and when you find more opportunities to lead, you will grow your capacity to lead. This key is found in activity and in your ability to add value to each life that finds itself under your influence.

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The Business Coach: Pricing, What are You Worth?

2010-12-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Pricing

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

Okay, you know, and your customers know that your prices are below average. You kill yourself to provide the best service you can. And I'm sure you noticed that some of your competitors are making three or four times as much as you, and they're idiots.

So, What's The Problem?

I have a challenge for you: it is time to look at yourself in the mirror and accept that your pricing, is based on your feelings of self-worth.

What Are You Worth?

What is going to happen is you are going to think about raising your prices but you are going to think of a million reasons why you can't or how it will be bad for business.

What is your time and effort really worth?

How hard do you work for your clients only to be disappointed by your clients' decision to go else where? or to be taken for granted by the very people you slave over?

There is really one answer: make it worth your time by what you demand in payment.

A Tip: Do This Gradually

Set a time-line, in which you will be charging customers an ideal rate for your products or services. Increase prices gradual. And Only charge your new or incoming customers your new rates. The old prices should be grandfathered as you progress toward your goal.

Is it worth the extra effort?

You may have to ramp up sales efforts, reorganize your marketing campaigns, however if you persist pay day will come. Consider and prepare for the ramp up. Think through any challenges you may potentially face.

After deciding that you will no longer accept anythin less then what you are truly worth. Do Not Compromise Your Standards.

If you have internal conflict with this say over and over again: 'I am worthy of abundance.'

I know, you know I'm right.

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The Life Coach: Self-Efficacy

2010-12-10T14:03:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Emotional Intelligence

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

Learned Optimism

The greatest leaders believe in their followers, believe in their future, most important they believe in themselves; in their ability to empower constituents and get things done. Effective leaders teach themselves how to be optimistic, therefore they are learned optimist.

One person that exemplifies the 'optimist' is Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who up till the day he left us, preached "The Power of Positive Thinking", belief in yourself, in God, and in your fellow man.

If we are honest with ourselves, we know what baggage we carry around, or tendency toward projections and our propensity to be mean spirited to those we love most. We are certainly aware of the broken promises and commitments of others toward us, and unfortunately we remember the unmet expectations we've suffer through, from our creator.

The longer I live life, the more I'm left to wonder about the question of: how do we get to the point of confronting our latter years in life with a promising belief in the goodness of God, ourselves and mankind? Even through our trials, unmet expectations and broken hearts, to thrive with this refreshed belief. This is truly the goal of a great leader, in a world that is so easily given to disbelief, cynicism and bitterness.

The simplicity of the matter is we only can give to others and ourselves what overflows throughout our being. We only can give out of our abundance by what has been nurtured in our emotions and beliefs. Our beliefs are not just something that are latent in us, a perception that only provides value or effect to the beholder; no, belief is something we give to those around us it permeates the minds of those in our environment and touches people in a way that is unknown to the conscious mind. Beliefs start revolutions, beliefs are the cause of life, hope, and passion.

To love our neighbor as ourselves, truly means that from the depth of self-esteem I can esteem others, that through self-love I can love others. These are given out of our personal abundance when we choose to nurture the overflow of love, esteem, and respect so it continues to pour out all around us.

The beginning of Over Flow

Self-Efficacy

If we truly want to Lead a Great Life, and desire to be the empowering leader that we are called to be it's important that we not only consider the following but, act on the principles introduced below:

1.) Action

A key to raising our self-efficacy, self-esteem or base level of happiness is through hard work and coping.

Learning to Fail

Hard work is a way we learn to fail. This may seem like a paradox but, the truth of the matter is the more failures we experience the more we experience success. Truly the most successful people in life have had the most failures. Even small successes have a way of affirming our personal value and self-worth. This is only half of the equation to raising our levels of self-esteem; the harder we work at something the more we succeed. The more we succeed the greater we feel about ourselves.

Coping

The second half of the equation is coping. The definition of coping in this context was best said by Dr. Tal Ben-shahar a professor at Harvard: "...it means getting out of our comfort zone, taking risks, daring, having high expectations and going for them, it means trying out for a play, it means approaching a person even though I’m afraid, putting ourselves out there, it’s about courage. Courage is not the absence of fear but, regardless of fear moving forward anyway, people who work hard and improve their self-efficacy raises and they belief in themselves raises." - with this said, it's when we meet those disappointments, and find the strength or personal power to carry on, that our self-worth is affirmed.

The second principle we need to visit is:

2.) Imagination

This principle contributes to the building of our belief in ourselves and denotes the concept of a self-fulfilling prophesy. It's important that we keep the end in mind, or that we envision what the future holds for us. The more vivid our imagination is in seeing our future, the faster we will get there. Our minds don't know the difference between a actual experience or a imagined experience, the same synapses fire in both occasions. In both instances of experiencing success or the imagined experience of success, our self-image and self-concept is influenced.

In order to use your imagination effectively visualization requires:

Subjective Visualization:

This defines you seeing things through your own eyes. This is most impactful to programming your autonomic system and reprogramming your self-image, there by creating positive self-esteem.

Involve your Senses:

It's important when visualizing that you involve the rest of your senses: touch, taste, auditory and olfactory.

Emotion:

The more emotion you place in your visualizations the faster it will come about. Stir up the emotions you think you would feel, if you were actually doing what you are imagining. Emotions play a striking part in re-enforcing the desire end. The more intense the emotion the more the event is re-enforced.

The third principle in this trio is:

3.) Cognitive therapy

Cognitive Therapy is just a fancy way of asking you to pay attention to your explanatory style. It's important that what ever happens whether positive or negative that you provide an interpretation or explanation to yourself that would be the most empowering.

Re-framing:

Let's say your spouse leaves you - what do you tell yourself, or you loose a job, how do you explain or represent these types of disappointments. These are more extreme cases, every day we are left to dozens of small but, significant events. If you use a positive explanatory style it will contribute to your self-image, self-esteem ultimately self-efficacy in a powerful way.

In conclusion: our self-image (or how we see our-self) is based on our interpretations of past experiences, not the actual experience. We program who we are based on memories or the interpretations thereof. So one way we can grow this self-image or to avoid self-imposed limitations, is to insert new memories, successful, triumphant memories, it will in turn build a new you; a limitless you.

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The Life Coach: That Proverbial Bus

2010-12-10T00:25:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Emotional Intelligence

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

Damn it! where is the bus? it was supposed to have been here 48 minutes ago. I am so freaking cold...I am gonna be so late. If it doesn't come soon I will miss my...What am I suppose to do now!? auhhhh!...Crap!

God help us if we don't come through victorious.

We have done everything we could, prepared all we could, burned the midnight oil, planned our work and worked our plan to ensure we came home with the trophy, to make sure we came through victorious, to ensure we got there on time, to ensure we met the deadline, to ensure we had it finished with time to spare.

Freaking Crap! Oh! I forgot this is an interdependent world.

We are so focused on doing it right, that we no longer acknowledge all the connections that make our win possible i.e. the bus driver, traffic, the internet connection, our business partners verbal agreement, our bank, our car etc.. After all we have done this a million times before. We take for granted the people and systems that make our goals possible, so when something for a moment becomes unpredictable or unreliable we feel the burn of frustration, resentment, anger, in other words stress. This emotion builds up in our chest begging for a release, a scream, a kick, or better yet a punch. We grit our teeth and try to breathe in deeply but we find ourselves still waiting for that proverbial bus. The worst thing is its' happening right here right now!

When It Comes Enjoy The Ride

It is out of your hands. It will happen or not happen independent of you. There is nothing that your worry can do. Decide not to be so attached to the outcome regardless of how painful. The pain will subside the more you focus on being the observer. Be tolerant; not in the way of grinning and bearing it, but become passive. That moment of stress will come and for whatever reason it just will not work out this time. It will happen or not independent of your will. Just take a deep breath understand you did everything you could have done and get on with your day. You only live once and you will endure more stress, just release the situation and chant whatever will be, will be. Life is short, so have fun while you are here.

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The OCD ADHD CEO: Hey Michelangelo, CALM DOWN! (1)

2010-12-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Management

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

Don't Let The Perfect Be The Enemy Of Progress

Do not sabotage your own success because things don't seem perfect. I know you created this wonderful company and have taken it from an idea to a cash cow. Being a perfectionist has its' charms and strengths but your restlessness is affecting those around you, so take it down a notch. Business might not seem perfect in your ideal world but it's going pretty good. The truth of the matter is that no one meets your expectations for perfection, not even you. It is a wonderful ideal to work toward your idea of 'the perfect,' as these demons of unrest drive you to be an achiever. But there are times that it will be anti productive especially when it comes to soft skills toward stakeholders, i.e. investors, partners, employees, and customers.

Let me take you through a number of categories, which include management, branding, market research, lead generation, lead conversion, and client fulfillment. Don't worry its' not that intense we will kick around a few concepts regarding each one and you can see if it is going worse then you think are better then you thought. Whatever advantages or disadvantages your business holds today the credit is yours. Just do me a favor learn to celebrate progress not perfection, you will be much happier.

1.) Are Your Managers Competent And Accountable?

Competent and accountable managers breed trust. Having anything less then accountability and competence on your team should be unacceptable. This means that it is important that you also stay accountable to your team and work on developing your strengths as a manager and leader, so that you can consistently deliver value both to your team and the market place.

Are you staying accountable? How do you know?
Can your people sit with you in your office and tell you what is wrong with your business?
Are you actively growing in capacity, through education and skill growth?
Is your team accountable to you and to each other?
Is your team actively working to grow in capacity, through education and skill development?
If your answers are in the emphatic affirmative area than I am certain you trust your managers. If you didn't find yourself so lucky you have your work cut out.

2.) Do Your Managers Have High EQ's?

If a stupid person complimented you on your intelligence would you be flattered?

The same type of sentiment goes for finding emotional intelligent managers, don't fall into the trap of thinking if someone is more emotionally intelligent then you that they fit this criteria. This infers that you understand the principles of emotional intelligence and that you grow in your acumen.

Knowing Your Emotions

Great managers are self-aware. Knowing how we feel and why we feel that way is important to communication and managing our own expectations. This also provides a reference point into the needs and emotions of others.

Managing Your Own Emotions

An invaluable manager knows how to detour frustrations and disappointments in trade of high productivity under the pressures of daunting expectations.

Motivating Yourself

Self-management and goals setting are emotional tools managers can't live without. Staying motivated during a crunch or a particular mundane day is vital to managerial progress and success.

Recognizing And Understanding Other People's Emotions

Interest and concern for others is a mark of empathy. Empathy serves as an emotional tool to assist productive managers in understanding the unique needs and motivations of those they serve.

Managing Relationships

Great managers understand how to motivate individuals to be at their best. The ability to direct and manage the emotions of others is an indispensable skill.

Do emotions catch you by surprise?
Do you encounter challenges when attempting to direct managers?
Do you communicate your emotional needs in productive ways?
During conversations do you interrupt others?
Do you work to understand others in moments of disagreement?
Do you procrastinate?
Do you keep your word?
Are people expecting too much from you?
If after answering these questions, you are not certain how you answers reflected on your EQ then its time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

3.) Are Your Managers Process Oriented?

Now, let's get down to business. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highly important, how important are business processes to you and your business? Process management is what you ultimately want your manager to have an acumen for. You want well document and efficient procedural processes and effective human management systems in place. You want processes in place for making your employees happy to processes that make you number one in your industry.

When you lose key talent to a competitor, you do not want a gaping hole that makes the department or even worse the company wobble, because you are scrambling to get things in place. You want to pick up seamlessly where your manager left off.

Can you run all your departments?
If key talent leaves can you seamlessly step in?
Can your managers run your business successfully?

Still there? How did you do?

If you did well, go buy yourself a beer you deserve it. CHEERS!

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Our Business Approach

2010-12-09T13:31:00.000-08:00

OUR PROFESSIONAL

COACHING FIRM

The Howard Group | The Professional Coaching Firm

Welcome Our Dear Friend:

We custom tailor services for each person we coach. You may be a business owner, an executive, leader or career person; or perhaps you are seeking personal or spiritual fulfillment. Our goal is to assist you on your journey.

No matter where you find yourself along your path; we are here to add value to your life personally or professionally.

The words of a wise man echo true in the heart and soul of this organization: A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth and a word spoken in due season, how good is it! This has become our passion: that we, through our relationship, might be a breath of fresh air in due season; to help you gain perspective, inspiration, and confidence as you take each step.

Know that no matter what stage you find yourself, greatness is within arms reach. Through conversation and interaction with each other, you will discover personal and professional fulfillment beyond measure. Our services are about LIFE and your journey; a journey that ends with success, satisfaction, and the knowledge of your true potential.

Take to heart, as we do, in the words of Goethe: 'Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.' We extend an invitation for you to join us on this transformational quest. We are grateful you have stoped to visit, if even for a few moments. It is from the challenges in life, the discontent of the minutia of our daily lives that we search for something greater. Know that the deep hunger you possess for change is the first step on this path, and that the desire to better your life and the lives of others is an incredible gift. It's only when we long for something and reach beyond ourselves that we truly find ourselves.

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. - TS Eliot

Best Wishes,

Santi Chacon

CEO/President and

Senior Partner

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The Life Coach: The Pursuit Of Happiness

2010-12-09T08:17:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Emotional Intelligence

By Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

Congruence And The Wonder Of It All

If we are not on the right path, unhappiness sets in. We may become restless as a result of not knowing our place in life or business.

If after a while you notice that you are experiencing terribly slow progress in business or no progress at all; while you work long hours, this is probably not your calling or purpose. There will be tremendous joy and visible progress in the pursuit of something if it's in line with your talents.. This is only the beginning. If you don't get the beginning right, you are going to be in trouble. If you get the beginning right, it's not smooth sailing, but it's fulfilling work. Knowing your purpose is a great leap into a happy and productive life. Happy people are peak performers.

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The OCD ADHD CEO: Have You Tried Medicating?

2010-12-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Executive Development

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

To Sell or To Resell? That is the ONLY Question

Okay, you say that regardless of your lack of experience that you still want to start a small business doing something you've never done before. Interesting, I think you are asking for trouble. Depending on how you handle the opportunity this decision can cause some challenges in any and every part of your life, including your personal life; however, if you are anything like me, an obsessive compulsive (not literally), than you just can't let this go. You are determined to do this thing you have dreamed of for a long-time partly because you are convinced you would do a great job at it and it makes you feel alive and partly because you are a very stubborn person.

The Cost of Doing Business

Just because you are very passionate and are convinced your loved ones should provide emotional support, doesn't mean that they will. Your missed commitments could still fowl things up. Be aware that with your new obligations you may have to find new personal relationships to evolve into. And if you are not working hard enough that those in your life feel neglected, you are hardly serious. Even if your spouse, partner, or children nod to condone and understand you; they don't understand the implications of ninety hour work weeks.

What to do? Oh, what to do?

We are talking about more than a small relationship strain, rather we are speaking of neglect, financial, and emotional strain which can be much more detrimental to your personal life than you could imagine. If you weren't aware of these challenges, consider them. There is always going to be an exchange for this crazy life you have chosen; this is if you are determined to be a serious player.

Where to go from here?

Although there are no solutions that work for everybody here is food for thought to lessen your burden at least in the first couple of years; which are the most crucial in a small business.

Consider:

The lower you are in funding the more impact a small business will have on your time.
The less experience you have selling/marketing in your chosen field the more impact a small business will have on your time.
The less you know about a particular field of expertise the more failures you will have and the more impact a small business will have on your time.

Do you have money saved up, at least two years worth for personal and business expenses?

Do you know potential expenses?

If not why don't you Wait, Prepare, then Move Forward.

If you are still determined to move forward:

Study your potential competitors; not for the reasons you think, but because you need to choose a company to work for; 100% commission. Call up the CEO and let him know that you love "what they have done with the place." Also that you have some high potential prospects (lie if you need to) that you are aware of and would love to resell his product to them. Don't be too stubborn or egotistical to not think deeply about this proposition. It will work to alleviate the relationship strain while providing valuable full-time or part-time experience depending on if you are still working a job while reselling. If you can't figure out how to work outside your work schedule to fulfill your dream, than this dream is not for you.

Helping someone else grow their business will teach you the ins and

outs of the industry; if you become really good at what you do they might ask for more of your involvement in the organization. This is contingent on the value you contribute.

You have the ability to create your own opportunities.

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Venture Capital: General Business

2010-12-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Venture Capital

By: Santi Chacon

Business Coach

Introduction:

The purpose for the Mr. Venture Capital Series is to help you to have a holistic perspective and an intimate relationship with your business. It's only when you know what your business is truly capable of that you will witness high performance.

Red Flags

Just like any new relationship if there are too many red flags you should be concerned. Red flags in this case are the fact that you can't answer any purposed question with ease and clarity. Red flags mean you need to go to work to find out the answers.

The Business Game

The business game is about maintaining a certain posture and confidence. The more you know about what you are doing the easier it will be to maintain this mindset. The more you know this the easier it will be to put together effective marketing and business strategies. Regardless of your interest in receiving a round of funding. The questions you need to ask yourself is:

Would you invest in your business?

Wherever your business is at the moment, whether it is just a plan or you have had funding before:

Are you really that impressed?

General Business

What is the market potential for your company's product or service?
What is the revenue potential for the industry, and what is its growth rate?
What determines if the opportunity is large enough?
How did you calculate market potential?
How do you determine industry sales and growth rate?
What makes your business different or unique?
Why would someone be "compelled" to purchase your product or service?
What specific needs does your products or services address?
Is your product something the buyer needs or is it a luxury item?
How do you know that your business has high-growth potential?
What is it about your management team that makes them uniquely capable of executing on this business plan?
What are the primary risks facing this opportunity?
Who are your competitors?
What gives your company a competitive advantage?
What is unique about your company that gives it an edge?
Does the company have proprietary intellectual property in the form of patent, etc.? trademarks, copyrights
What do you own?
What can you protect?
When will your company break even in terms of profitability and cash flow?
How do you plan to acquire customers?
What are your company's customer acquisition costs?
Have you calculated average and target revenue per customer?
Do you know how many customers are required to break even?
Do you know the product sales cycle?
How do you plan to keep customers?
What drives customer satisfaction for this industry and for the product? (how do you know?)
Have you conducted research in order to assess what is truly important to your customers?
Do you know what product features are critical vs. those that are ancillary?
Have you considered how you're going to support the product?
Have you considered the expenses associated with such support?
Will existing customers purchase your product or service again?
Will they recommend it to others?
Who is the end user of the product or service offering?
Is this a consumer-based business?
Will you sell your product or service to other businesses?
What do you know about the demand for your product or service in that target market?
What do you know about the buying habits of your target market?
Do you anticipate any roadblocks?
For example, will you have to educate the buyer?
What alliances or partnerships have you entered? (e.g. joint ventures, marketing alliances, licensing arrangements, selling/distribution agreements, channel partnerships, software agreements, etc.)
Do any of your alliances give you a competitive advantage?
Do they create barriers to entry?
Do they help you reach customers more efficiently?
What is the anticipated life-cycle of your product or service offering?
What are your current and future plans for investment for first-time buyers as well as for follow-on sales to existing customers (e.g. upgrades)?
What are your plans for R&D investments?
How will you continue to generate revenues when existing products run their course?
How do you plan to expand your labor force?
How will you compensate people, so as to attract, motivate and retain employees, while keeping labor costs under control?
What are the probable exit scenarios?

Begin Studying:

Schedule regular readings on your industry; decide to read one to two hours daily. Start anywhere go everywhere. Read blogs, listen to industry podcasts, read company websites, press releases, and publications. Call companies and listen to their sales pitch, ask questions about their competition, prices, and business model. Before too long you will have an accurate picture of all the nuances in the industry. Nothing will take the place of discipline and persistence in this area.

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Venture Capital: Securing Experience

2010-12-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Venture Capital

By: Santi Chacon

Business Coach

Introduction:

Red Flags

The Business Game

Would you invest in your business?

Wherever your business is at the moment; whether it is just a plan or you have had funding before, are you really that impressed?

Questions in Venture Capital interviews typically fall into several categories; for my intent and purpose here I want to focus just on one:

Your Expertise

The truth of the matter is that you need to have working experience in your industry. Your industry should be well known, it should be what you measure your performance against. If you can't answer the following questions and reference publications and studies done in your industry; with ease, than you have work to do.

A Clue:

Finding information on your industry should be second nature to you. This should be a regular exercise, I hope for your sake you are spending several hours daily reading on your industry; otherwise you are going to make it more difficult than it really needs to be.

Expertise Questions:

(These are all industry specific questions)

How many years of experience do you have in the industry?
Explain why your former company took the path they did?
What projects exemplified your expertise in this industry? and how?
What is your experience running successful marketing campaigns?
What is your experience with customer acquisition?
What is your strategy for customer acquisition?
Do you have any customers currently? why or why not?
What are the major trends in your industry?
What are the industry challenges?
What are the industry opportunities?
Explain how familiar are you with your industry?
What is your plan to explore both the opportunities and challenges?
How does current economic conditions affect your industry?
Who are your top 10 competitors?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
How do they compete in the market place?
What are the prices of your top competitors?
What are ten major publications in your industry?
Where can you locate studies regarding the latest industry news?
What business model is going to be the most effective? and why?

Based on your ease in answering these questions:

Would you bet on your expertise?

The key to answering these questions is experiential knowledge. You should have years of experience in an industry before beginning a business. If you are having difficulty with these questions, review each question and brainstorm by asking the questions: where can I find this information? and who can I ask for help? Failing to learn to answer these types of questions and to gain the experience, is a reason for the high failure rate in businesses today.

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The Spiritual CEO: The Altar Illusion (Part 1e)

2010-12-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching, Spirituality, and Conflict Management

By: Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

The Altar Illusion

Jesus: So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny.

The Fifth Attitudinal Principle: Attitude Toward The Accuser

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny.

People Are Predictable

There are a few precepts Jesus puts forward when dealing with personal conflict. The first concept is found in the statement 'on the way traveling with him', this statement infers that the accuser has an active role in our lives. Also this infers that people are predictable, meaning those closest to you will fall into the role of an accuser; regardless of how good the relationship starts, if we are careless.

The second concept is to appeal to the accuser and not to appeal to the accusation. Unmet perceived needs are always going to be the subject of discontent. These perceived needs should be met with understanding and depending how complex the situation with great diplomacy. The subject contains ego investment, in which can be disarmed, through a loving focus on the accuser.

-ACIM

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Small Business Economics: Comparative Advantage

2010-12-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Small Business Economics

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

Comparative Advantage is a situation in which a country, individual, company or region can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than a competitor.

As a CEO starting a business or attempting to establish your small business in your dream industry, what are the barriers of entry? What do you have to invest in terms of time, energy, financial and human capital to play the business game in your dream industry? or what must you continue to invest to earn the right to sell your products or services profitably? Can you afford to pay the price the market is asking over time?

Barriers to Entry

For example: there are industries that cost $40 (network marketing) to enter and industries that would cost multiple millions (McDonalds' Franchise) and still others that have tremendous barriers to entry, in which the price of admission make it impossible to enter, such as cartels (OPEC) and monopolies.

Is there an industry that is better suited for your knowledge, talents, and investment? or which your comparative advantage is much higher? or opportunity costs are much lower?

The Gift of Time

Regardless of what industry or business you choose, if you can overcome the barrier to entry and sustain your business for the next couple of years you are in a winning position. As you spend time in that industry you will eventually find ways of producing more with less, if that is your intention. The more you can work to lower your opportunity costs the greater your profits can be.

80% of businesses fail within the first two years. Executives lack prudence when it comes to counting the cost. These are gifted men and women who perhaps could have succeeded if they understood comparative advantages and opportunity costs. When a person takes time to gather insights regarding industry and competitors before entering into a market, then the chances at success increase.

What are you giving up to produce your product or service? Could you produce a product or service at lower opportunity costs than your competition? Or is your comparative advantage too low? And most important, are you in the right industry?

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The Spiritual CEO: The Altar Illusion (Part 1d)

2010-12-05T14:26:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching, Spirituality, and Conflict Management

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

The Altar Illusion

Jesus: So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny.

The Fourth Attitudinal Principle: Attitude Toward Time

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him...

At the appearance of conflict, Jesus points out that our perception of time is important. At a moment when we witness misaligned attitudes, the cause has already taken root. Time will work against us if we do not take care of matters quickly. To offer healing is a purpose of time. To extend humility in a time of emotional upheaval is the price of peace.

Guilt and Accusation

We abide in our internal world filled with guilt; guilt that is then transformed in self-criticism or self-condemnation. Guilt is then projected as individuals become critical or suspicious of another persons' motive or actions.

The Source for Accusation

The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds.Projection makes perception. We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because we are being good andcharitable, but because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defences, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognise our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or forgive. At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concepts to the Self that God created in us and as us.

Healing of Condemnation

The Holy Spirit forgives everything because God created everything. Do not undertake His function, or you will forget yours. Accept only the function of healing in time, because that is what time is for...[God] will teach you how to see yourself without condemnation, by learning how to look on everything without it. Condemnation will then not be real to you, and all your errors will be forgiven.

ACIM

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The Spiritual CEO: The Altar Illusion (Part 1c)

2010-12-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching, Spirituality, and Conflict Management

By Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

The Altar Illusion

Jesus: So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny.

The Third Attitudinal Principle: Attitude Toward Terms

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him...

Jesus reminds us that regardless of how good our intentions are we will face accusations from those we have opened our lives to. He suggests that we come to 'terms'. Terms have a different meaning to Jesus then they do most of us. To us coming to terms means negotiating, compromise, or giving in. To God coming to terms is call toward strength in humility.

The Holy Spirit asks us to rest in God's certainty, regardless of how frightened we may feel to give up our ego attachment and to embrace his terms (love).

His Terms

Jesus: If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

Suppose a brother insists on having you do something you think you do not want to do. His very insistence should tell you that he believes salvation lies in it. If you insist on refusing and experience a quick response of opposition, you are believing that your salvation lies in not doing it. You, then, are making the same mistake he is, and are making his error real to both of you. Insistence means investment, and what you invest in is always related to your notion of salvation. The question is always twofold; first, what is to be saved? And second, how can it be saved?

Whenever you become angry with a brother, for whatever reason, you are believing that the ego is to be saved, and to be saved by attack. If he attacks, you are agreeing with this belief; and if you attack, you are reinforcing it. Remember that those who attack are poor. Their poverty asks for gifts, not for further impoverishment. You who could help them are surely acting destructively if you accept their poverty as yours. If you had not invested as they had, it would never occur to you to overlook their need.

Recognise what does not matter, and if your brothers ask you for something 'outrageous', do it because it does not matter. Refuse, and your opposition establishes that it does matter to you. It is only you, therefore, who have made the request outrageous, and every request of a brother is for you. Why would you insist in denying him? For to do so is to deny yourself and impoverish both. He is asking for salvation, as you are. Poverty is of the ego, and never of God. No 'outrageous' requests can be made of one who recognises what is valuable and wants to accept nothing else.

-ACIM

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The Spiritual CEO: The Altar Illusion (Part 1b)

2010-12-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching, Spirituality, and Conflict Management

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

The Altar Illusion

Jesus:So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny.

The Second Attitudinal Principle: Attitude Toward Our Brother

First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift.

Jesus reminds us that our attitude of heart is what facilitates our relationship with him. This also serves as a reminder to be sensitive to the conscience of those in our lives. We are our brothers keepers and part of this responsibility is to be concerned with how our attitudes effect them.

People are God's extension to us. Those who somehow make it past our insecurities, past our defenses, and into our lives serve as God's teacher. One relationship may teach us tolerance, while another teaches us patience, and still another teaches us love. God's lessons are not always pleasant but they are necessary for our specific purpose.

Ultimately, God will teach us to perfect our love:

Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time...[no one can teach] the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. [The aim is toward] removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.

-ACIM

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The Spiritual CEO: The Altar Illusion (Part 1a)

2010-12-03T17:23:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching, Spirituality, and Conflict Management

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

Interrupting, she retorted "...hey, Paul I need to take this. Can we talk about that later?" she asked rhetorically as she pressed her cell phone against her ear. 'Sure,' he said quietly, standing up and making his way toward his office.

How long is she going to shun my interests in exchange of her own bad judgments? he thought, "I have had it. I know this business more than she does." he muttered angrily, nodding his head.

Walking briskly he grew aware of the echoing sounds his shoes made against the marble floor. Turning the heads of most in his pathway. He finally reached his office. Aggravated by the thought of her arrogance, he closed his office door behind him and rushed to the phone. Comforted by the voice of his assistant, "Good morning Paul". "Johnna, get John Beck on the phone, please." Moments later his phone rang back with the call from his assistant. He took the phone, "This is Paul", he greeted while getting comfortable in his chair. "Hello John, how are you Sir?" Paul said cheerfully, working his way toward his concerns about the CEO with one of the most influential investors of the company.

A Reflection

Maybe her response toward Paul was rooted in arrogance, or apathy, or maybe the CEO was as busy as she led on. Regardless of her attitudes of heart she is called to contribute love and value to the lives that come under her influence. Extending herself with humility and sensitivity is important to her God, relationships, and business.

In a moment of overwhelm and stress it is vital that she check in with those closest to her regularly to ensure that from their perception she is being sensitive and loving. As a spiritual CEO in the moments of chaos all she needs to do is close her eyes, inhale deeply and slowly find her breath, and listen to the holy spirit remind her: Forsake not now your brother. For you who are the same will not decide alone nor differently. Either you give each other life or death; either you are each other's saviour or his judge, offering him sanctuary or condemnation. -ACIM

The Altar Illusion

Jesus: So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny.

The First Attitudinal Principle: Attitude Toward Worship

Jesus: So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go.

The first concept that Jesus points out is by contrast. He perceives true worship as the attitude behind the act of worship, which is illustrated by the giving of the gift at the altar. Any moment we acknowledge some type of grievance from our brother or sister Jesus calls us to forsake our illusions of an altar and our perception of righteousness in light of true holiness. Holiness is acted upon through the understanding that God's true altar is in our minds, our bodies are his temple, and collectively we are his church. We are called to forsake the illusions that would put our distorted religions before love.

I [Jesus] am sorry when my brothers do not share my decision to hear only one Voice [the Voice of the Holy Spirit], because it weakens them as teachers and as learners...it is still on them that I must build my church. There is no choice in this, because only you can be the foundation of God's church. A church is where an altar is, and the presence of the altar is what makes the church holy. A church that does not inspire love has a hidden altar that is not serving the purpose for which God intended it. I must found His [God the father's] church on you, because those who accept me as a model are literally my disciples.

-ACIM

With every moment that passes we are given the gift to acknowledge God within each other as a true form of worship. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. - St. John

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Sales Development Basics: The First Rule of Sales and Business

2010-12-03T15:22:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Sales Development

By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach

Introduction:

In this discussion I will give you principles and guidelines for the sales process. What I want to ask of you in return is for you to go over these principles more than once to decide on the implications they have on your business, and write them down. This information will cause you to think about how you should position yourself when conducting a sales campaign.

I should add that a dominating factor in Sales Development Basics series is business to business sales vs. business to consumer; nonetheless I know this will be invaluable to anyone looking to develop a sales pipeline for their business.

Sales

The sales development ideas that will be presented have assisted millions of professionals in developing effective sales funnels and in turn have contributed to the world’s largest organizations. There are four sales mythologies I draw my ideals from: strategic selling, conceptual selling, spin selling, and solution selling. With these tips I am only scratching the surface.

Principle #3 The First Rule of Sales and Business

For your small business I recommend planning for long-term sales success. Your mind set should embrace a long-term perspective and focus; this means that you must consistently learn and apply proven principles that will increase your chances for the sale.

If You're Competent At Sales, You Will Never Have To Sell Again.

One of the first obstacles you have in business is to generate enough sales to create positive cash flow and to invest in human capital. Business professionals need to create an infrastructure that will be self-sustaining. As a business owner you must be able to create enough business and positive cash flow through your sales efforts, so you can replace yourself as the sales person and promote yourself to a strategic marketing role.

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The Spiritual CEO: Insight (Part 1d)

2010-12-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Spirituality

By: Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

She inhales deeply at the intrusion, flustered she lifts up her eyes from her computer screen, leans back in her chair, and stares at the VP of Operations. 'What Now!' she thinks, as she attempts to put a smile on her face. She listens to his concerns trying not to roll her eyes, least he take it personally. Nodding as she listens she could feel her heart rate quicken. "I told you...Paul', she scolds. 'I know..I know, I am sorry,' he mutters cowardly looking at the carpet. Feeling betrayed she politely asks Paul to leave her office. Paul quickly and humbly accepts her invitation to exit. He knows that his job and friendship are on the line, even if he acts quickly to resolve the issues at hand; he just needs more time.

All she needs is found in a breath. A breath is a gift from God to assist her on focusing on the present. God is found in the present moment, not in the future, which is a figment of her imagination or the past. Being still will help to dilute the internal torment of her anger and the taunting of her desire to keep composure. She can work to avoid the feelings of anger and betrayal that are currently overwhelming her and begging her to react.

Our Passions

Jesus: You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court. But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot!] shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire.

Jesus makes reference to a moral standard (the ten commandments) and uses the concepts of the higher courts or the Sanhedrin as symbols of authority and judgment. There were acts in the Jewish community that required judgment and societal consequence. He soon correlates an act of rage to an attitude of heart, which is the seed of murder. He narrows the act of murder to the spirit of murder and the acting out of anger toward another.

A spiritual professional understands that displayed anger leads to down a path of illusion in a world where love is the only reality.

The relationship of anger to attack is obvious, but the relationship of anger to fear is not always so apparent. Anger always involves projection of separation, which must ultimately be accepted as one's own responsibility, rather than being blamed on others. Anger cannot occur unless you believe that you have been attacked, that your attack is justified in return, and that you are in no way responsible for it. Given these three wholly irrational premises, the equally irrational conclusion that a brother is worthy of attack rather than of love must follow. What can be expected from insane premises except an insane conclusion? The way to undo an insane conclusion is to consider the sanity of the premises on which it rests. You cannot be attacked, attack has no justification, and you areresponsible for what you believe.

You have been asked to take me [Jesus] as your model for learning, since an extreme example is a particularly helpful learning device. Everyone teaches, and teaches all the time. This is a responsibility you inevitably assume the moment you accept any premise at all, and no one can organise his life without some thought system. Once you have developed a thought system of any kind, you live by it and teach it. Your capacity for allegiance to a thought system may be misplaced, but it is still a form of faith and can be redirected.

-ACIM

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The Spiritual CEO: Insight (Part 1c)

2010-12-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Spirituality

By Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

As her organization grows and establishes a track record it begs for the attention and interest of customers and investors. She begins the 'IPO' conversation with her board of directors. She earns a high six figure income annually and will soon become a multi-millionaire after the IPO. Working 16 hour days, she strives to maximize her business potential; taking every competitive advantage to make her enterprise the best in the market.

She has worked hard to shield herself from the cold elements of current economic conditions. Lifting herself from poverty to success. Building a hedge or financial fortress that will only grow stronger with time. It is now when the seduction of power presses in and torments her ego.

Every moment of the day she has a choice to be spiritual and to humble herself in the light of right decisions. She can choose money over humility, again every moment is given her to embrace her own salvation and to remember who she is in light of her creator. She simply needs to close her eyes and remember there is a moral standard that wasn't created by the world. These ethical standards were established to protect her from herself.

A Standard For Morality

Jesus: Do not think that I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to complete and fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the Law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished. Whoever then breaks or does away with or relaxes one of the least [important] of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven, but he who practices them and teaches others to do so shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness (your uprightness and your right standing with God) is more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Torah As A Point Of Reference

Jesus makes reference to the Law (The Ten Commandments) and the Profits, which is a reference to the Jewish Law (Torah). The Torah or Law is central to Judaism. Jesus submited his ego to promote something he believed was greater then himself. He promoted the Law or morality as being central toward a new spirituality, as did every writer of the New Testament.

The Gift Of Reciprocity

The second inference that Jesus makes is the integrity of the word of God (or Torah), and his commitment to reward those who hold to the Law. Spirituality is not the reward but a life of contentment and abundance is. The reward is what true spirituality will provide those who practice its' tenants and understand its implications.

We Teach What We Practice

Jesus brings two concepts together, which are practice and teach: You have been asked to take me [Jesus] as your model for learning, since an extreme example is a particularly helpful learning device. Everyone teaches, and teaches all the time. This is a responsibility you inevitably assume the moment you accept any premise at all, and no one can organise his life without some thought system. Once you have developed a thought system of any kind, you live by it and teach it. Your capacity for allegiance to a thought system may be misplaced, but it is still a form of faith and can be redirected.

-ACIM

By the virtue of practicing you will teach those around you to act ethically. As you are confronted by choices people are always on the sidelines, either they can witness your integrity or errors in judgment. Regardless of who you think is or is not witnessing the unfolding of events just be certain someone is.

Escape From The Ego

The ego has built a shabby and un-sheltering home for you, because it cannot build otherwise. Do not try to make this impoverished house stand. Its weakness is your strength. Only God could make a home that is worthy of His creations, who have chosen to leave it empty by their own dispossession. Yet His home will stand forever, and is ready for you when you choose to enter it. Of this you can be wholly certain. God is as incapable of creating the perishable as the ego is of making the eternal.

Of your ego you can do nothing to save yourself or others, but of your spirit you can do everything for the salvation of both. Humility is a lesson for the ego, not for the spirit. Spirit is beyond humility, because it recognizes its radiance and gladly sheds its light everywhere. The meek shall inherit the earth because their egos are humble, and this gives them truer perception. The Kingdom of Heaven is the spirit's right, whose beauty and dignity are far beyond doubt, beyond perception, and stand forever as the mark of the Love of God for His creations, who are wholly worthy of Him and only of Him. Nothing else is sufficiently worthy to be a gift for a creation of God Himself.

-ACIM

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The Spiritual CEO: Insight (Part 1b)

2010-12-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Spirituality

By: Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

As the executive faces the challenges of the day, she wintessing her own enslavement to the errors in judgment or the lack of love displayed in her actions. Every moment she is faced with a choice for salvation, she simply needs to close her eyes and remember who she is. True spirituality comes from the acknowledgement of who she is and her willingness to renew her decision by extending herself in love, which is her only reality.

Self-Worth

Jesus: You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

The principle that is acknowledged by Jesus is our worth. He bestows confidence not based on any merit we have created for ourselves but based on who he created us to be. You are holy. You are perfect. You are worthy of all love and abundance. The spiritual man and woman lives in this reality daily and chooses to make choices based on the question: Is this worthy of me?

Is This Relationship Worthy Of Me?
Is This Food Worthy of Me?
Is This Job Worthy Of Me?
Is This Response Worthy Of Me?
Is My Work Worthy Of Me?

If something is not worthy of the glory that is us then we can work to change it by a natural extension of our will. These are the actions that Jesus speaks of: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. We will shine before people more and more as we become more and more congruent with who we are in God, which is our only reality.

Our Reality

Be not content with littleness. But be sure you understand what littleness is, and why you could never be content with it. Littleness is the offering you give yourself. You offer this in place of magnitude, and you accept it. Everything in this world is little because it is a world made out of littleness, in the strange belief that littleness can content you. When you strive for anything in this world in the belief that it will bring you peace, you are belittling yourself and blinding yourself to glory. Littleness and glory are the choices open to your striving and your vigilance. You will always choose one at the expense of the other.

Humility will never ask that you remain content with littleness. But it does require that you be not content with less than greatness that comes not of you. Your difficulty with the holy instant arises from your fixed conviction that you are not worthy of it. And what is this but the determination to be as you would make yourself? God did not create His dwelling place unworthy of Him. And if you believe He cannot enter where He wills to be, you must be interfering with His Will. You do not need the strength of willingness to come from you, but only from His Will.

-ACIM

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The Spiritual CEO: Insight (Part 1a)

2010-12-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Spirituality

By: Santi Chacon

Senior Business Coach

Introduction

Our Challenge

Playing the business game and being spiritual may seem to be an oxymoron. A professional who attempts to rid herself of the conventional values of Wall Street to seek self-renewal and spiritual enlightenment may question her motive now and again. She may experience moments where godless ambition take hold of her, after all it's how the game is played. She struggles with purpose because spirituality never really became solidified or clear to her in a business context.

As Clear As MUD

If you were posed with the question: What is spirituality? We may come up with words such as love, morality, ethics, yoga, meditation, self-renewal, holistic etc... but What is the purpose of our spirituality? How do we know if we are being spiritual? We may reflect on our character or our ability to tolerate, to respect, to love; however, is this acting spiritually? Is than spirituality the basis for our morality? and Do spiritual truths influence or affect our daily lives?

Our Hope

Jesus spoke of hidden truths of a spirit filled life. To him true spirituality meant freedom from fear, health, abundance, love, emotional, mental, and physical healing, happiness, and purpose. These truths were central to the Torah and were the pathway toward a new spirituality.

'In him we live, move, and have our being; Christ is all encompassing. God is love and in love we live and have our beings. The moment we witness God in the minutes of our day is the moment we will witness greatness in our everyday spirituality.

Our Reality

The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds.Projection makes perception. We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because we are being good and charitable, but because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defences, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognise our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or forgive. At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concepts to the Self that God created in us and as us.

-ACIM

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Sales Development: Be The Student

2010-12-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

Business Coaching and Sales Development

By: Santi Chacon

Business Coach

Introduction:

In this discussion I will give you principles and guidelines for the sales process. What I want to ask of you in return is for you to go over these principles more than once to decide on the implications they have on your business, and write them down. This information will cause you to think about how you should position yourself when conducting a sales campaign.

I should add that a dominating factor in this part of Sales Development Basics series is business to business sales vs. business to consumer; nonetheless I know this will be invaluable to anyone looking to develop a sales pipeline for their business.

Sales

The sales development ideas that will be presented have assisted millions of professionals in developing effective sales funnels and in turn have contributed to the world’s largest organizations. There are four sales mythologies I draw my ideals from: strategic selling, conceptual selling, spin selling, and solution selling. With these tips I am only scratching the surface.

Principle #2 Be The Student:

Sales development is the understanding and application of effective behavioral principles. To be an effective sales person we need to question our behavioral habits and its' effectiveness against proven mental models. This series although not holistic will provide insight that will assist executives in being more productive sales professionals. The executives who must move their products or services have an opportunity to transform the business.

I want to ask for you to read through this series more than once. Decide on the inferences and implications these sales principles have on your sales success and document your thoughts. This call to action will cause you to examine your sales process and sales effectiveness.

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The Life Coach: The Fundamentals

2010-12-01T00:48:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Emotional Intelligence

By: Santi Chacon

Executive Coach

3 Fundamentals

1.) Child-Development: Our brain is still developing in our childhood. But, at about puberty, it loses a lot of it's elasticity, it locks in and stores, what has been recorded and this becomes the core of our permanent identity. We can only learn to manipulate it, but the raw elements of what becomes this identity are woven into the fabric of our unconscious mind.

2.) The Formation of Our Identity: The self image is an internal mechanism. It records what we experience through our senses 24 hours a day. Through this unconscious recording, it dictates who we are, and what we should feel. So in reality we train it by exposing ourselves to thoughts (self-talk) relationships, by what we watch and listen to. From this it learns to recognize patters and then it demands from us what we have programmed it to demand.

3.) The Definition of Projections: Projections are the attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or suppositions to others: and/or the attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naive or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt.

The challenge we face with this truth, is as a child we learn to accept what is given to us by authority figures. We as children are not in control of what we learn or understand as acceptable.

Now, if we came from great parents, this will help to propel us forward in life. However, if it seemed that you had a dysfunctional upbringing it’s important for you to be self-aware, of what is going on inside your self-image. This will help you to take steps to amend the errors.

Most of our adult life we are fighting against patterns rooted in our childhood. Maybe our parent’s fought all the time. Maybe, we were abused, or in foster care or maybe our parents were absent physically or emotionally.

If we don’t learn to manipulate and reframe these patterns, we will spend our entire adult lives, fighting for what we felt we lacked as a child. We will interpret our present adult experiences through the emotions of our childhood.

As a child if we are feeling abandoned or neglected by our care takers, some of the patterns we may see or experience depending on our personality and temperament could be things like: constantly seeking attention from our most intimate partner, becoming too needy, hypersensitive, never convinced our partner loves us, regardless of what he/she does in attempts to convince us otherwise, or we may become aloof and cold, to protect ourselves from feeling abandoned, or we may withdraw when feelings of intimacy arise.

Under certain triggers we will interpret our present adult experience through the emotions of our childhood. The more emotionally charged the experiences the more stained our self-image will be. For example if you were in fact abused emotionally, mentally or physically. Depending on personality and temperaments, you may become abusive yourself, you may be prone to projecting and overreacting to those closest to you. You may fight depression. And this is because: this is who yourself image says you are. What you experienced as a child, when triggered will be a constant state, as though you were reliving those moments, over and over again.

Now these are extreme cases, there are degrees of struggle; my goal was to expose you to the logic of the self image, so that you may recognize it in your own life, based on your upbringing.

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The Executive Coach: Interpersonal Communication

2010-11-29T17:37:00.000-08:00

Executive Coaching and Emotional intelligence

How do you communicate with your constituents?
Are you communicating in a way that builds up their confidence?
Do you communicate in a fashion that leads them in their development and moves them toward your objectives?
Have you created a communication strategy?
Have you considered the typology of your audience before communicating to him or her?

Adapting Your Ideas to the Audience

It is time that you measure your message against who your audience is. A good leader is a combination of psychologist, business coach, and mentor.

Don’t seek a major opinion change in a single conversation.
Be conscious of each constituents posture, atttitude, and beliefs on important issues.
Make your ideas relevant to your audience by linking what you have to say to their experiences and interests.
Showing consistently that the topic affects them directly is the most effective strategy.

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Small Business Economics: Economic Fluctuations

2010-11-29T09:18:00.001-08:00

By: Santi Chacon

Business Coach

An economic fluctuation is a sequence of economic activity typically characterized by recession, fiscal recovery, growth, and fiscal decline.

We know a recession is coming again once you get back on your feet financially. The only question is When? If you managed to keep a cash-flow positive business during this recession I applaud your efforts but what happens next time under another instance of economic strain? What will you do or avoid doing altogether? You have the chance to reconsider cash reserves, infrastructure, and investments with the aim of reducing risk.

You can prepare by diversifying your offerings, creating more cash reserves, focusing on core competencies, thinking lean, expanding, and building new partnerships that will help to sustain you or assist you in a quicker financial recovery. If you are just attempting to get through the current tremors of economic disaster without regrouping and planning you are gambling on your financial future.

Cliff Notes On Business Cycles

During economic contractions businesses experience declines in sales and profits.
Recessions do not come at regular intervals.
Some recessions are close together (called a double dipped recession). An economy can go many years without a bust (or the bottom of a business cycle).
The longest period in U.S. history without a recession was the economic expansion from 1991 to 2001. Because business cycles are economy-wide phenomena, they show up in many sources of macroeconomic data http://www.bea.gov.
When economic conditions deteriorate, much of the decline is attributable to reductions in spending on new factories (capital spending), housing, and inventories.

Consider the inferences of the cliff notes. What are the implications on your industry and business? As a professional have your fingers on the pulse of economic indicators, industry, and your own business.

Musical Chairs

You do not want to be the only one standing when the music stops and your seat of industry is taken. Do not be fooled by your current level of comfort; what you think is secure isn't. The next recession may hit you harder and if you don't decide to play a different game you will be standing alone without anyone to blame but yourself.

Last Word About Business Cycles

The only predictable element about a business cycle is that it experience fluctuation again. Recessions by definition are short-term. The good news is that you will only have to weather the storm for a couple of years.

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The Life Coach: The Strength Of A Decade

2010-11-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

By: Santi Chacon
Executive Coach

As we step into a new decade that begins January first, it's easy to slip into a state of nostalgia. If we are brilliant we may soon find ourselves considering the deaths of American icons, the advances in technology, the creation of social media, and most important our own development.

An Opened Invitation

Take a moment and allow yourself to ponder the last decade the fortunes, the misfortunes, the victories, the lessons learned, the people, the lovers, the friends, and the betrayals. Consider how much you have matured and think of anything that will work to influence your next decade.

How can you make life worth while for yourself and those you love?

The most important revelation I have experienced recently had to do with the value that long-term relationships and projects contribute to our self-image. Those long-term events and relationships cause the most growth to the self-image have become the most valuable. The directing of self-image growth is what propels great successes or great failures. This could translate into getting a PhD, the commitment to be a vegetarian, write a blog, bringing on a professional coach, getting involved in a mentoring relationship, or getting involved in a professional network.

The greatest projects to get involved in personally or professionally are the ones that will positively influence how we grow into the person we desire to become. Look at life as a set of projects and relationships that will forge your destiny, before getting involved in a new relationship or project ask: Who Will I Become As A Consequence Of My Commitment?

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Sales Development Basics: The Complex Sales Doctrine

2010-11-23T12:48:00.000-08:00

By: Santi Chacon

Senior Business Coach

Introduction:

I should add that a dominating factor in Sales Development Basics series is business to business sales vs. business to consumer; nonetheless I know this will be invaluable to anyone looking to develop a sales pipeline for their business.

Principle #1 The Complex Sales Environment:

A complex sales environment, can be defined as a climate, in a business to business setting, where high dollar products or services are sold. This could translate in being a one time purchase or a recurring charge throughout the fiscal year. The word 'complex', indicates that you are dealing with influencers, underlying motivations, and complexities that only arise under these conditions.

Our approach in this type of context should be different then in that of a simple sales context. Techniques that could get us a smaller sale, in this case, could cost us the sale. Also, the higher our costs the slower our products and/or services will be sold; there are always exceptions, but don't rely on them.

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Lead Generation: #12 Lead Generation In Action

2010-11-23T12:35:00.001-08:00

By: Santi Chacon

Business Coach

Principle #12 Lead Generation In Action

Now, that you have an idea of the type of information you need: we can finally take a look at: how to execute a lead generation campaign.

You first need to decide what medium you are going to use for generating leads:

Website
Public Relations
Lead Nurturing
Branding
Phone Calls
Emails
Events
Direct Mail
Networking/Referrals
Social Media

Here are some thoughts regarding these:

You can become financially successful by mastery.
The bigger the business you desire the more lead generation activities you need to invest in.
In the beginning, evaluate and allow your talents and abilities to drive this business decision.
Look over the list just mentioned and create a study on each one to understand the implications it will have on your business.
Make sure you commit tracking your ROI on each lead generation activity you pursue.
Set yourself a time frame in which you can begin using other mediums for lead generation.
Do not waste your time on lead generation activities that have no return or a low return on investment.
Find a mentor who is achieving the type of success you desire to have, and pay attention to how he/she is generating leads.

As you should know timing is everything, so choose to be in front of your prospects when they are ready to purchase your products or services. The underlining theme here is exposure. The more professionals know about you and your offering the easier it will be to get business.

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Spin Selling: In Vino Veritas

2010-11-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

Posted By: Santi Chacon
Senior Business Coach

John Golden

President & CEO

Huthwaite

In the coming weeks wine buyers and speculators will start buying the 2009 vintage from Bordeaux but will not actually take possession of the final bottled wine for another two years. While this futures market is generally interesting only to a niche audience of wine enthusiasts and investors, there is a tradition that will be worth watching how it plays out this year. Once they set their price for their particular wine, the Bordeaux wine growers never drop the price regardless of the reaction - they will increase it if the demand is great but will never cut the price even when the demand is not there.

How many sellers of any product or service out there can claim to do the same? Given the fall in worldwide demand for wine last year due to the recession the growers will likely be especially careful in setting initial prices this year. Still, even if they end up setting them too high, in accordance with tradition, they will tough it out and hold the price. That takes some metal given that they have nurtured their product through all the variables that Mother Nature can throw at them all year.

So perhaps next time you are getting intense price pressure but really believe in the value of what you are selling, remember the Bordeaux vigneron and his/her determination to hold price and ask yourself why you should act any differently.

Then go buy yourself a nice bottle of Bordeaux to celebrate when you get your price and deliver the value to the client!

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Spin Selling: Sales & Marketing Alignment?

2010-11-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

Posted By: Santi Chacon
Senior Business Coach

John Golden

President & CEO

Huthwaite

Every time the subject of sales and marketing alignment comes up it seems like everyone is in violent agreement (regardless of which of the two disciplines they come from) that this needs to be a priority and the time has come once and for all to get everyone on the same page if not the same team. And yet, this rarely seems to actually happen and so year after year sales and marketing alignment continues to be a conversation topic rather than a strategic imperative. (Of course there are companies who have executed this quite brilliantly but they remain exceptions).

Why is it so hard to accomplish this alignment? It must be hard after all if everyone agrees it should happen but very few attempt it, right? But this is where I struggle because I don’t believe it is that difficult at all. There seems to be a level of deliberate inaction. The reluctance seems to be born out of a fear of role dilution and the steady erosion of traditional lines of demarcation resulting in the blurring of skill-sets and expertise.

In the traditional paradigm everything was relatively neat and tidy. Marketing with their creative talents and distribution channels (mail, email, web, conferences etc.) would create campaigns based around features & benefits and then channel the responses/leads to the sales organization. The sales organization would then initiate contact and begin a sale cycle - two very different skill-sets operating on two very different playing fields. Marketing was the king of the “one-to-many” communication and Sales was king of the “one-to-one” communication.

However, the times they are a changin’ to quote Bob Dylan. The traditional channels for distributing marketing messages are being usurped. Social Media with its intense level of both personal outreach and self-selected communities has created a world where firing off an email marketing campaign (or a snail mail one for that matter) and waiting for the response no longer has the same impact.

In this new paradigm Marketers have to get up close and personal with the target audience and engage directly with them. They have to become more adept at answering questions and providing information to that audience. The handover to Sales is less clean and defined because as I discussed in a previous post, the prospect may be looking to gather a whole raft of information before they ever want to engage with a “sales person”. So where does that leave the Marketer? In reality it means they are likely to have to develop some selling skills and at times kick-off the sales process themselves and if the sale is more transactional in nature it may mean they actually complete the sale. The lines as you see begin to blur significantly.

But what of the sales person waiting for that hot lead from Marketing? Well their world too is being changed by Social Media and professional networking. If the Marketer has kicked-off the sales process by their engagement through non-traditional media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn groups, YouTube etc. then the sales rep needs to understand the history of that communication and be au fait with these new media and how they are being used by prospects and they need to speak the lingo (oh yes there is a social media lingo). In essence the Marketer and the Sales person need to work collaboratively and overlap like never before. Again more lines are blurring.

The Sales person’s prospecting and engagement with prospects is also changing as I discussed in the post on the 21st Century Sales Rep Challenge. Now that they are required to prospect and engage through all these non-traditional media they have to become adept at provocative, sound-bite sized communications to try and catch the attention of the well-informed prospect who is being deluged by information and outreach from all your competitors. It sounds like the Sales rep needs to develop some communication skills traditionally associated with Marketing doesn’t it? The lines are so blurred now I can hardly see them!

So is it really about Sales and Marketing alignment after all or is it about Sales and Marketing integration? If traditional workflows are being forever altered what does this mean for traditional roles? And let’s face it, there are no more traditional roles than the Sales rep and the Marketer.

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Spin Selling: Time to Rethink your Sales Force?

2010-11-23T08:22:00.000-08:00

Posted By: Santi Chacon
Senior Business Coach

John Golden
President & CEO
Huthwaite

In the ever increasing world of disintermediation where buyers can source information on products or services directly and bypass much of the traditional buyer/seller relationship the need to structure your sales force according to these buying patterns becomes even more crucial.

Neil Rackham and John De Vincentis explored this concept in their prescient book “Rethinking the Sales Force” which was published in 1999 but speaks even more directly to the challenges facing organizations today. One of the central arguments is that you need to segment your sales force according to whether it is a transactional or a consultative sale. This may seem on the surface to be a statement of the obvious but stop for a moment and think about how many sales organizations straddle both and how many sales people will grab transactional business to offset the longer sales cycles of a consultative sale. During the 1990s in sales organizations it was still common to have a percentage of sales people focused exclusively on transactional selling, another percentage focused on consultative selling and then a large chunk in the middle who did both. What has happened, however, over the past number of years is that the middle has started to get squeezed as the percentage of transactional buyers has increased due to all of the factors I listed in a previous blog entry (consumer buying habits infiltrating B2B buying and the ever increasing ease of purchasing driven by technology advances). Equally the consultative side of this equation has also expanded as buyers become more sophisticated at the higher end and look for greater value creation from vendors. They don’t just want to know how your product can help them but they want your insights on their business, the industry and they want you to become the illusive “trusted advisor”. Taken together this puts greater demands on the caliber of your consultative seller and greater strains on your support organization.

So as these two types of sales (transactional vs consultative) become more demarked not less, you need to ask yourself if your sales organization is sufficiently segmented and structured to support both? You further need to ask yourself if your transactional sellers should be more akin to marketers leveraging all of the different web 2.0 marketing channels to reach and service the transactional buyer (this will be a topic for a later post).

As you grapple with these challenges I would recommend reading (or re-reading) Neil and John’s book because the more I look it at it, the more I feel it was ahead of its time in 1999 and the time it was ahead of is now.

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Spin Selling: The 21st Century Sales Rep Challenge

2010-11-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

Posted By:Santi Chacon
Senior Business Coach

John Golden
President & CEO
Huthwaite

As a follow-up to my previous post, someone asked me what I thought the main challenge would be for the 21st Century sales rep as we head into the second decade. I see a number of challenges all related to the core issue of the torrents of information that are flowing through our lives on a nanosecond by nanosecond basis. Consider the fact that our consumer buying habits are beginning to inform our B2B buying habits – we comparison shop online, we use our professional and social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc.) to get third-party opinions and reviews of the vendors we are considering. We are informed, we know almost everything there is to know about the vendor and their offering before we ever engage directly with them.

Meanwhile on the flip side of this equation, the sales rep is getting up-to-second intelligence on us. They are using business intelligence sites like Jigsaw, OneSource, and Hoovers to figure out who we are and how to connect with us. They are tracking us down on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. They are contacting those who know us (current colleagues, past colleagues, business partners even college roommates!). Their CRM and Marketing Automation systems are feeding them real-time information anytime we come within a click of their website. Just like the buyer knows almost everything about the vendor, they vendor in turn knows almost everything about the buyer before they ever initiate contact.

So back to the original question about what is the main challenge for the 21st Century sale rep – well it can be broken out as follows:

You need to filter all of the information available about the prospect to get to what is actually relevant to the sale (don’t confuse lots of information with useful information).
Maximize every communication with the prospect whether phone, email, face to face (or tweet for that matter) by demonstrating that you are using the information you have about them to create value by aligning your offerings with their business issues and drivers.
Make sure all communications are clear and concise (there is too much information noise – buyers appreciate brevity).

Be open and transparent with them – respect the fact that they can pretty much find out anything they want about you so don’t waste their time being opaque or trying to be clever In essence understand that we all struggle to find clarity in the wall of noise that this 24/7 torrent of information creates and if you can be a paragon of concise, precise, business-aligned communication you can cut through the noise and stand out from the crowd.

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Spin Selling: Sales 2.0 Conference Debrief

2010-11-23T07:41:00.000-08:00

Posted By: Santi Chacon
Senior Business Coach

John Golden

President & CEO

Huthwaite

While attending the Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco last week a thought struck me. Here we all were gathered to hear about the latest technologies and automation of processes that are revolutionizing how sales & marketing is executed; It is all cloud-based, crowd-sourced, social-media enabled, driven by online tribal knowledge sharing and yet we were all gathered in a very traditional physical conference setting to listen, question, understand and network.

It really brought it home to me that the more we use technology in an intelligent way to automate the processes that underpin twenty-first century customer acquisition, the more we raise the bar for the still necessary occasions when the face-to-face interaction takes places during the complex, solution sale. In other words, because you know more about the customer and the customer knows more about you, your products, your competition, the more you need to differentiate yourself during your interactions by demonstrating a deeper level of understanding of the customer’s business drivers and be able to quickly and coherently outline how your solution can support those drivers.

The fact that you have so much more information at your fingertips about the customer that you have gleaned from Hoovers, OneSource, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Jigsaw as well as your marketing automation system and your CRM and a host of other sources, the greater the onus is on you to use this information effectively and to prepare even more (not less) for the sales call. It means you have to take all of this information and work harder to draw out the themes, read between the lines and even look at the career histories of your customer contacts to establish what is important to them.

Then once you are in communication with the customer regardless of whether it is through email, phone or face-to-face (or even Twitter for that matter) your line of questioning needs to be well-informed, well thought-out and laser-focused. Why? Because it is becoming increasingly clear that as all of these Sales 2.0 technologies and capabilities spread and as information about customers becomes as readily available as it is diverse, the final differentiation between sellers will often come down to their fundamental communication and core selling skills. Sales 2.0 will not compensate for lack of individual sales skills, on the contrary it is only going to expose them and make them more obvious.

So as technology advances and automates the selling and buying processes you need to make sure your sales people are advancing their skills in lockstep.

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Miller Heiman: Round Table Discussions Part 5

2010-11-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

Discussion Four: Leadership and High-Performance Sales Organizations

An organization’s culture is a powerful contributor to results, but it takes effort to create one that delivers top-tier performance. To uncover what organizations can do to develop these organizations, the fourth discussion topic focused on the key attributes of high-performance organizations. The group also focused on the role of leadership in a high-performance culture and why it is hard to create a culture of candor and accountability.

One item the group addressed was the idea of identifying and moving low performers.

“You’ve got to figure out how to get rid of low performers,” said Reese.

As one attendee observed, leaders get personally invested in helping people, but there’s a penchant to waste time with the bottom third of performers. Another participant referenced how GE cuts the bottom 10 percent every year – across departments.

But, as another attendee cautioned, it’s important to be careful with employees’ confidence. “I agree with looking at bottom 10, but be careful of evaluation,” he said.

Another participant told how, in 2008, his company wasn't where it needed to be, but the leadership relayed to the entire organization that improvement in performance would ensure the next year was an exciting ride. “We mapped out what it means to have a high-performance culture. We told them that it means a lot of things but, if you do them, next year will be great. It meant some change, but those were levers in a road, it was the story about what it could mean to someone. Adoption was never an issue.” He advocated that illustrating what it means to be a high-performance organization can be a strong way to motivate people.

Bob Miller commented on one attribute he’s observed in high-performance sales organizations. Paradoxically, there’s a high degree of collaboration amongst people in the field, even though they may be competitive,” he said. “There’s an absence of lone wolves.”

Reese mentioned the idea of candor, saying “The best mentors I had were very clear in review and created the spirit where you can admit ‘we’re bad at this,’ rather than leaving meetings and whispering why we didn’t fix it.”

Another participant commented that providing visibility into KPIs is valuable for the company.

“Collaboration is interesting,” commented an attendee. “We had transparency around what people are doing and how they were doing it.” He referenced his company’s incorporation of ‘deal blogs,’ and the sales reps’ who were leveraging them as a forum for support.

Bob Miller observed, “Those who ask for help are your top performers, not the bottom.”The idea that high performers obtain the executive support and resources they need, as the squeaky wheel, was echoed multiple times.

Jones noted that another key attribute of high performing sales organizations is that they celebrate successes, that there is an element of recognition. As Reese observed, “Sometimes leaders are afraid to celebrate because people will get soft.”

Another noted that seeing leadership participate in the same actions, practicing is influential. “We’re just all big kids,” he said, “waiting to see if you are going to do it. If they see me doing it, it’s not going away.”

“Discipline,” stated an attendee. “High performance cultures have that. We looked back over a couple of years and we didn’t have it, but once did we saw predictable results. Again, the idea of candor surfaced. “If you have clear metrics, everyone knows how they’re being judged,” said one participant. He commented that it’s a matter of sorting fact from fiction.

One participant shared that, when driving dialogs about candor, it’s important to be transparent, as well. “I’m open and transparent about what I fell down at and grade myself in front of others,” he said.

Another attendee referenced Zappos, noting that the culture the founder has created is one of unbelievable candor. “All the way down to his personal blog, he’s completely open and honest about the good and the bad,” he said.

Reese closed the session with an anecdote from the previous day, when he met with an individual who’d been clamoring to get on his schedule for a while. During a 90-minute lunch, he kept asking, “would there ever be a point where you’d want to know about my company?” The response from the vendor was, “in a couple of minutes.” A couple of minutes later he asked, “Are we at that point yet?” The vendor’s response was, “let me show you this slide.” At the end, the individual asked how it’d gone. “It didn’t go well,” said Reese. “I got all the right people here and you don’t even know one thing we do, or what our interests were.”

“Salespeople still get excited about products,” Reese said. “It’s about discipline.”

Key Observations:

Illustrating what a high-performance organization will look and be like is a strong motivator.
Top-performing sales organizations tend to celebrate the successes of their people.
With clear metrics, people have a clear understanding of how they’re being judged.

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Miller Heiman: Round Table Discussions Part 4

2010-11-22T02:14:00.000-08:00

Discussion Three: Being Customer-Focused, Really

In the third discussion of the session, attendees focused on the root of customer centricity. How do organizations truly embed this culture in a highly competitive market? What does it mean to have a customer-focused organization? When all signs point to the imperative nature of getting closer and closer – and closer – to the customer, what changes need to be instigated that will cause real shifts in an organization’s mentality?

One participant noted that it is “the shift of moving from the product being the middle of all activities to the customer being the middle of all activities. It’s a shift from features, functions, benefits to understanding customer needs. There’s no benefit in the product unless the clients sees it addresses their needs.”

The observation was made that many people tell their sales force to stop pitching the products and then bundle products together to construct a “total solution.” As one participant observed, “If you’re not aligning what you can do for clients based on what their needs are, it’s really not customer focused. A package just doesn’t really count.” As he put it, every company says they’re customer-focused, but who has really measured it or put [initiatives] in place around it?

Reese commented that, “when they say they want to switch, they’re really saying ‘if we combine old, outdated products, we’ve got a solution.’ Nobody’s fooled by that.”

One participant admitted that his organization has not done a good job of developing solutions based on customer feedback via customer development groups and advisory groups. “Where we struggle is when reps show up to talk about solution,” he said. “If left to their own devices, they’ll show up and throw up.”

Miller made the observation that in orientations, the first thing that’s given to new hires is a description of service lines. “They unscrew their heads like mayonnaise jars, dump stuff in, and say ‘go forth and be customer centric,’ when what comes out is product, product, product.”

Speaking openly about how focusing on the customer shouldn't just fall to the sales force’s shoulders, another attendee admitted that his organization had just lost a profitable customer. “Not because of service, not because of price,” he said. “They left because of our billing. Our people wouldn’t respond quickly. I offered to give them a personal accountant, but it was too little, too late. We weren’t listening; we didn’t have a formalized process to hear our customers.

Tim Call, executive vice president of Miller Heiman, asked, “What questions might get you there?” A variety of responses followed:

• When did you last see your sales rep?
• Are you willing to reference us?
• How are we doing compared to your other suppliers?
• What value does your company get from doing business with us?
• Are you getting the results you expected?
• What is your company’s perception of us?
• What do you see, what are your employees telling you about us?

One participant noted his company was conducting a third party, anonymous survey, and that the quotes from them were invaluable.

Call mentioned that executive involvement was also a key gauge for customer focus. How do company executives become engaged with a customer-focused strategy?

One attendee shared that his leadership team goes incognito at trade shows “It’s a litmus test of how reps are doing with customers,” he said. One of the members of that team commented that other levels in the organization (i.e., software engineers) are sent to customer training sessions, which gives them a good understanding of customers’ concerns in the field.

Call also inquired about communicating internally the importance of being customer centric.

One participant shared that her organization distributes a newsletter within the company with (when possible) photos and hyperlinks to help recognize reps and share specific examples of what people have done well.

“Have customers interviewed for articles in corporate newsletters so they can give their candid perspective,” suggested another attendee.

“We have the CEO do a weekly state of business,” shared another participant. He mentioned they also have a customer kudos section, where they frame customer feedback on a wall of fame. “ It’s covered with framed letters from customers saying ‘so and so helped and came out at 3 a.m. and fixed, etc.’” People are really proud to work there and the support they give.

Miller mentioned that one question he always asks at keynotes speeches with customers and mixed groups is how many are salespeople. “Maybe 50 percent of hands go up in the room,” he said. Then he gives the audience a different definition: a salesperson is anybody who interfaces at any time before, during or after the sale with a customer and is therefore in a position to positively or negatively affect this sale or the next sale down the line. “For the same question, every hand in the room goes up. Sometimes it’s how we define things that matters, that changes a culture to a customer-centric.” He imparted that it’s important that everybody understands that even in their job, if they come in contact with a customer for even five seconds they’re representing my company. “You never know who you’re impressing positively or negatively,” he closed.

One participant shared his organization’s best practice for ensuring clients are taken care of properly when an account manager leaves. “If someone’s leaving the org and is tied to key client relationships, we call clients for a 5-10 minute meeting and come in with his replacement and share face to face how we’ll take care of them.” He said that customer feedback has been impressive, that the perception is the company treats [customers] as important by showing that they’re important.

Call then asked for some of key questions that should be asked when creating a customer-focused organization.

A few questions were offered initially:

• How do we communicate with customers?
• When someone has a complaint or problem, how do they find us?
• How are we doing now?
• Do we really want to do this?
• Do we have the stomach for it?

“It’s tempting to think of it as a sales issue,” commented one attendee. “It’s not – it’s a company issue. Accounting has an impact, the executive level has an impact, delivery people,
etc. Becoming customer centric is, for many of us, a large undertaking that goes well beyond sales. Are we willing to rethink our company in a way that’s customer centric to really
get there?”

As another participant observed, “An org that’s done really well at this is the Ritz Carlton – they’ve enabled every single employee to take care of a customer problem up to certain dollar amount. The effect of that has been absolutely powerful on that organization.”

“How many people in finance have the same performance metrics in place to fix billing?” asked another attendee. He pondered how a company should realign compensation and performance across other departments in order to drive true customer-centric focus.

Reese brought up that when you hear customer centric referenced as a strategy, the majority of the time it’s just a slogan. “When I ask people to tell me what that means, they reply ‘focusing on the customer.’ Yeah, I got that. There’s no detail because it’s hard, heavy and difficult.”

Call asked if companies are posing the question of whether they really want to step up and make this commitment toward change.

Key Observations

Everyone that comes in contact with the customer is representing the company, regardless of their role.
Being customer-focused is an undertaking that goes beyond the sales department.
Executive sponsorship is a key to having a truly customer centric organization

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