photo by superfantastic 

There’s a pretty common saying when it comes to software development and implementation (I’m sure it applies to other projects as well).  It’s all about balance.

Good, Fast, or Cheap – You can pick two of them.

It’s always a trade-off, a balancing act because at the end of the day nothing is perfect.  If you want high quality and you want delivered quickly, it’s going to be expensive.  If you want it cheap and fast, you’re going to get low quality, it’s pretty simple but proven time and again.

Now the great thing about this trade off is that it if it’s used properly, it really allows for a great discussion about what’s really important and a recognition that there is not a single right answer, just a matter of priorities.

It’s ignoring this fairly simple idea that is the major problem with selling and politics (especially the over the top political speeches going on right now).  By not acknowledging the inevitable trade-off I’m making as a buyer or as a voter and instead telling me I can have it all – you almost automatically lose the sale.

I don’t normally get into politics, but I think the current election is a great example (and both parties are making this mistake).

I don’t care what you want, here’s what I’ve got

If you turn on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC – or any countless number of other ‘news’ channels, you have been bombarded 24×7 by interviews and discussions with various political talking heads.  The most common format is for the host of the show to introduce an issue or an angle and have 2 representatives, 1 from each party, give their ‘take’ on the issue.

Clearly all of these people have been well trained in their approach, because I have yet to see any of them stray from this formula.

1.  No matter what question is asked, deliver the talking point of the week or the day.

2.  When it’s time for a follow-up to the question that wasn’t answered, repeat the same talking point.

There’s no discussion, there’s no sense of wanting to know what I’m interested in (or the host of the show) there is only the AGENDA – that’s all they’re selling whether you want it or not.

The really frustrating part is that it’s both parties doing this – basically leaving me with the perception that there are only bad choices out there.

How this applies to sales

This problem is also unfortunately very common in sales.  Like when you run into a salesperson that immediately jumps into their ‘pitch’.  I had it happen to me yesterday with a call from one of the online yellow pages companies offering to put my listing at the top of the page.

The salesperson was obviously trained in his approach, for every objection or question I had, he had a quick response, but if you listened closely he was basically just repeating and rephrasing the same sales pitch in different ways.  Of course as an ongoing student of selling – I put him through a pretty extensive round of questions and objections.  He got an A+ for effort and D- for really understanding my business and what might help me.

The result?  No sale and 20 minutes of wasted time.

What’s the ideal solution for this lack of balance?

Going back to the idea of balance and trade-off, find out what is most important to your prospect – what is their biggest pain.  Is there a way for your product or service to address that pain?

If not, then thank them and walk away.  The prospect will be shocked and may end up pursuing you.

If your product can address their problem, make sure they understand the potential solution and don’t dance around the trade-off.  Successful sales are those that build long term relationships and long term relationships are built on trust and good-will.  It’s that balance of recognizing the impact of a solution that will really convert buyers in today’s market.

If I’m going to buy a car and I make it clear that I’m looking for great gas mileage, I’m going to walk away from the salesperson that tells me I’ll have all the power I want, even with a high mileage engine.  On the other hand, I will feel like the sales guy that warns me that the ride will be a bit sluggish if I go with the economy package is shooting me straight.  Then I can make a decision fully understanding the trade-offs.

Have you ever been sold to without being asked what you want or need?  Did you buy?  Have you ever tried to sell someone this way?  Share your thoughts here.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

Do you ever feel like you’ve just been run over by a car (or decided to lay down dramatically in the middle of the road?)    You know when you’ve got a ton of stuff going on, you haven’t had a free moment to yourself for quite a while and your work is piling up figuratively and literally.  You walk into your office and immediately feel drained and a bit defeated.

Have you ever felt that way?  Do you kind of feel like that right now?

There is a sure fire fix that will get you back on your feet, energized, focused and ready to take on the challenges ahead of you.

Now this fix isn’t a permanent solution, although it can be done more than once and if it becomes a routine I’m pretty sure your productivity overall would improve.  I haven’t gone far enough down the path – at least consistently to prove the long term benefits, but I can assure you that my outlook this morning after doing this is much better than it was yesterday!

What makes us get so overwhelmed?

Before I get to the solution, I think it’s worthwhile to think about why we get overwhelmed with all of this stuff in the first place.  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below on what pushes you over the edge.

My observation (both of myself and people I’m around) is that there are several contributors – here’s a few that seem to be most prevalent:

• Trying to do it all – work, kids, family obligations.  You just can’t physically put a gallon of liquid into a 2 quart container, it won’t fit and when stuff starts spilling out you stress about it which makes it worse. You might not want to hear it, but ultimately you have to prioritize and say ‘no’.
• Having an element of perfectionism in everything you do.  This doesn’t apply to everyone, but there are a lot of people that will spend a huge amount of time on details that probably don’t really matter that much.  I’m not suggesting that it’s okay to just throw stuff together, but I would bet that there are some things that you do that could be a bit less perfect.
• Unwillingness (or inability) to delegate things.  If you’re truly on your own, your options may be limited and you may not want to or have the money to spend on help, but you’ve got to be constantly looking for those things that you spend time on that are not uniquely suited to you (i.e. other people could do them without impacting the results).

The longer term fix for these kinds of things is to make a fundamental change in how you look at things and what you’re doing.  It’s likely you need to simplify and prioritize what you’re doing (there’s no silver bullet to make more time in the day, but you can learn what’s really important and just do those things…). 

That’s one of the benefits of working with a Coach – we’ll help you get focused and straightened out – which by the way, is a long term fix that can really add to your quality of life!

The short term fix for feeling overwhelmed

So here’s the fix I talked about above – it may sound hokey, but I promise you will get a lift out of it. 

If you’re like most people that are feeling overwhelmed, you’ve got a stack (or probably several stacks) of stuff just lying around your work area – and maybe your house.  Although you don’t realize it, those stacks are draining you every time you see them.  (Little paper vampires!).

I’m not saying you need to be a neat freak – if you’re not naturally a neat person, then that probably isn’t ever going to happen, but everyone can get a little bit more organized.

So here’s the specific tip…identify 1 corner of your desk, office or whatever area is nagging at you the most and clear it off.  Don’t just move it to another part of the office, but really deal with it.  Throw it away if it’s been there for more than a month or two and you haven’t touched it.  If you need to keep it, find a home that’s out of sight for it.

If you need to respond to something in the pile…well you might be in trouble (I did find a bill that was a bit old…) but better late than never.  But whatever it is, get it out of your sight and handled.

Allocate 10 or 15 minutes and then go do something else (like write a blog post).  If you’ve still got a mess around, do 10 or 15 minutes the next day.

You will get an immediate lift, a feeling of accomplishment and a bit of a feeling like a clean slate so you can really get started on other stuff.

Try it and let me how it worked for you – share your comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

photo by Never Cool In School

There’s a lot going on with business owners these days – you’ve got the everyday challenges of just running your own business, you’ve got an economy that’s in the tank (and media outlets doing everything they can to make that as scary as possible) and you’ve got an election making a lot of noise and further distracting everyone.

But beyond all that, the problem I see with most business owners today is that they never take the time to look at the big picture.  They don’t have a focused view on where they’re going.

Let me know if you’ve ever heard this:

“That’s a great idea!  I just don’t know when I’ll get the time to do that!”

Or how about:

“I really should call my best customers, but I’m just too busy fighting fires!”

Now I’m all for hard work, but it doesn’t really matter how hard you work if you’re working on the wrong things.  And by wrong things, I’m talking about things that might be urgent but are unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Time Management Matrix

For a better explanation of what I mean, let’s take a look at the Time Management Matrix that was popularized by Stephen Covey.

Most people (myself included sometimes) spend way too much time in Quadrants III and IV (I don’t know why they use the Roman numerals here…).  The fact is that it’s really easy to get sucked into ‘busy’ activities that make you feel like there’s a lot going on, but the reality is that not a lot gets accomplished.

Then there are those people that I think of as professional firefighters, camped out in Quadrant I – they are constantly dealing with a crisis situation, an urgent deadline or some kind of flare-up.  It’s usually perceived as important activities, but the real problem is that they only deal with crisis situations and sometimes, if there’s not a crisis, they will create one just so they feel productive.

Both situations cause a lot of problems, but the biggest issue for either is that long term important activities such as personal development, strategic planning, building relationships, etc. are ignored or at least given little attention.

So what’s the answer?

The Importance of Focus

There are people that will tell you that you can solve this problem by using better time management – however I’m convinced that you would just be treating the symptom, not the actual problem.

In other words, you might be able to do more unimportant work in the same amount of time, but that’s not really going to solve the problem.

No – the real solution is to develop the right focus.  You need a systematic way to break out of your current pattern and start doing things differently.  Here are the steps:

1.  Figure out what you want.  There’s an old saying that if you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there.  You’ve got to have a vision, a direction, a set of goals.

2.  Figure out where you are.  This seems simple, but it’s really important to have an objective and clear assessment on your current situation.  That’s the only way you can really…

3.  Determine what’s missing / what needs to be done.  Come up with a top 20 list of projects or activities that will help you get closer to your goal.

4.  On a related note, you need to identify what your constraints are relative to the list of stuff that needs to get done.  Do you need more skills? Better skills?  Do you need more people?  More money?  A better network?  Better cashflow?  What will be holding you back if you start down this path?

5.  Finally – you need to prioritize your really big list, pick the top 2 or 3 activities and get started.  At this point it’s all about taking action – the right action and making things happen!  This is where you need to be focused and accountable.

Now you can do this process on your own, but I guarantee you that it will be much, much easier to succeed at it with the help of someone else – whether that’s a Peer Group Advisory Board, a coach or at least a couple of good friends that can help hold you accountable and keep you focused.

Let me know if this approach makes sense to you or if you know of anyone that’s struggling with the big picture – comment here and let me know what you think!

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coaching

Photo by Daexus

I haven’t been able to play golf in a while (kids and a relatively new business tends to squeeze out your free time).  But I’ve played enough to recognize the one secret that all of the pros have that allows them to be great.  Without this trait, all the talent, brilliance, training or money in the world won’t allow them to compete at the highest level.

Oddly enough, that same trait is a major key for success when it comes to marketing your business as well.

In golf you might be on the 1st tee and hit a 300 yard drive right down the middle, but if you chunk your approach shot (chunk is my technical term for a complete mis-hit that results in a 10 yard dribble up the fairway), it’s pretty unlikely that you are going to make par.

A consistent swing that gives you expected repeatable results is the only way to score really low.

In marketing, you might go to a networking event and make 5 great contacts that could really help your business, but if you wait 2 weeks before calling them back, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to set up very many meetings or convert them to new clients.

A consistent approach in marketing that gives you expected repeatable results is the best way to have a winning business.

Obviously the key in both of these examples is consistency.  How can a consistent approach (or the lack of consistency) impact your business?  Read on.

Consistency in Marketing Message.

It’s critical that people understand who you are and what you do – that’s why your pitch, your 30 second commercial is important.  You need to grab attention, interest and curiosity to be effective.

However you also need to be consistent in that message from meeting to meeting.  It doesn’t take much to confuse people and if they thought they understood what you do and then you switch it up on them, they’re most likely to just disengage rather than figure out what you’re doing.

It’s fine to try out new ways to explain what you do, just be aware that you’re doing it and try to refine it to a consistent message as quickly as you can.

Consistency in Marketing Strategies.

Marketing a small business is just as much an art as it is a science – unfortunately there’s no guaranteed strategy for marketing that will work for every business and every business owner all the time.

To be successful in marketing, you need to identify multiple strategies and apply them consistently over a reasonable period of time.  As an example, if you have a professional services business of some sort, here are the types of things you could do as the baseline for your marketing efforts:

– Workshops or speaking engagements – 1 per month

– Direct mail and/or calls – 10 per week

– Blogging – 2 or 3 per week

– e-Newsletter – 1 per month

– Networking and strategic alliances – 2 meetings a week

– Adwords campaign – $50/month limit

– Articles – 2 per month

These can all be effective marketing strategies, but only if you execute them consistently.  The worst thing you can do is to dabble sporadically, when you have time, across several different approaches.

As an example, a Blog or a newsletter that doesn’t get updated or published on a regular basis is actually worse than never having one at all – the lack of consistency sends the message that you don’t follow through well, even on your own priorities.

If you’re networking, you need to spend the time and effort, show up consistently to events that you’ve targeted and really get to know people over time.  It may take several months for people to get comfortable with you, believe that you are going to stick around and that you’re somebody worth knowing.  Only dropping by every blue moon when you get a chance will reinforce that you’re not worth the effort to network with.

Advertising that isn’t consistent is even worse – it’s ineffective and it’s expensive.  I’m not talking about continuing an ad that isn’t working, I’m talking about developing a plan for the next 6 months and sticking to it before determining what works and what doesn’t.

Just like developing a consistent swing in golf is difficult, sticking to a marketing plan can also be very challenging – especially if it’s working and you start picking up new business.  That’s the time to really bear down and do what you can to make it a habit – ultimately that marketing system is what will drive your future success.

How do you approach your marketing?  Do you jump from idea to idea or do you follow a plan pretty closely?  Share your thoughts here.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

photo by Tony the Misfit

I had a couple of great meetings last week with the kind of people that I would like to hang around with (or work with).

I imagine everyone knows that person that’s always happy – you know the one that can almost be annoying except that they make you smile.

On the other side of the coin, you probably also know those people that are never happy.  They start an awful lot of sentences with “Yes…but” and proceed to tell you in great detail why something won’t work.

It can be incredibly draining to deal with the negative people (and these days there’s more of them than ever!).

The great news is that for the most part you get to choose who you hang out with.  (Family might be a little challenging, but in almost every other case, you have a lot of influence).

If you really want to experience success, enjoy what you do and transform all of those hours of work into something you look forward to, give some thought to the people around you. 

Here are the 3 things you need to do:

Surround yourself with ‘Challenging’ People

I mean challenging in a good way – the kind of people that make you stay at the top of your game just to keep up with them.

I’m talking about people that have great attitudes.  A sunny and happy disposition is part of that, but even more importantly they approach problems (both yours and theirs) with the attitude of ‘what if we tried this’ or ‘There’s a way to solve this – let’s figure out what it is’.

These are people that are into learning and trying new things.  They aren’t afraid of new ideas.  They fully buy into the idea of helping others to help yourself.

They’re not afraid to give you the unvarnished truth from their perspective – that doesn’t mean just telling you what they don’t like or where you might be wrong, it really means making positive, constructive criticisms on what you could do better.

Even if you mostly work on your own, you can (and should) have a some sort of support group – perhaps even an advisory board! 

Beyond an advisory board, start looking around for people that you click with, that seem to be making things happen and find a way to strike up a relationship with them.

Drop the Negatives!

If you’ve been struggling to reach your goals for some time, there’s a pretty good chance that you are dragging around an anchor or two.

Anchors are those people that continually paint you into a box and place limits on you.  They may not do it on purpose – they may not even realize they’re doing it, but the drawback is that even if you don’t agree, if you can hear them you are influenced by them.  They are holding you back.

Take an inventory of your 20 closest associates that you see on a regular basis.  It could be friends from college, the neighborhood, people you work with.  Once you’ve got your list, do a quick checklist review on each of them, asking the following questions:

1.  Does this person ever inspire me? 

2.  Does this person challenge me and suggest new ideas to try?

3.  After spending time with this person do I feel more energized than I did before I saw them?

If you have at least a couple of no’s for that person, then you should start finding a way to distance yourself as quickly as possible.

Become a positive

The best way to attract positive people is to become one yourself.  If you’re already inherently positive – Great!  Now challenge yourself to do more of that.  Go out and make things happen. 

If you’re not as positive as you’d like to be, then it’s time to start changing.

Shake things up and try new things – even if you fail, you’ll succeed because you’re learning!

When you meet with someone, go into the discussion with the mind set of ‘how can I help this person out?’  Can you introduce them to someone?  Are you really good at something they’re struggling with?  It doesn’t have to be a big deal and you don’t need to give your business services away, but it’s been proven time and again that helping people solve their problems will ultimately generate rewards for you.

If you’ve ever felt that creative spark when you’re meeting or working with someone that’s a real dynamo, then you know how fantastic that experience can be.

Where do you fall on the negative – positive spectrum?  How about the people you hang out with?  Share your thoughts here – I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

photo by Spacepotato

There are  a lot of things you can learn about advertising and marketing – there are hundreds of books, online courses, blog posts and ideas floating out there.

Some of them even make sense and don’t contradict each other…!

But there are a few things that seem to be fairly common – simple in concept, but not easy to pull off consistently.  Especially when it’s just you hanging out by yourself trying to pull together a flyer, a mailer, an ad – whatever it might be.

The first thing that’s important is to know who  you’re talking to – who’s your primary target audience.  I won’t go into details here, but this isn’t as easy as it sounds.

The second thing you have to do…absolutely have to do is catch their attention!

SHOUT AT THEM!!!!  Make NOISE!!!!  Turn their head!!!

Write a headline that grabs them – post a picture that makes them think or look.

The last couple of things you have to do to really seal the deal.  You have to paint a picture of what’s meaningful as a benefit to that target audience (what’s in it for them?).  And finally, you have to get them to take some action.  If you get everything else right but they don’t take any action, then no sale for you.

Below are a couple of examples that might help you pick up some ideas of what I mean.

Example 1 – be explicitly graphic (and potentially gross…)

There’s an ad running frequently on the radio stations I listen to during the day that really grabbed my attention the first time I heard it.

The product is Evercleanse, a weight loss and detoxification product that cleans out your body.  How’s this for some imagery:

Red meat, processed food…creates a lot of waste, that some experts say is trapped to the colon walls like spackle or paste!

Who’s ready for dinner?

You can listen to the radio ad on their site.  Although I don’t think I would buy the product (especially after researching them on the web), the ad is effective.

They clearly target people that are trying to lose weight.

They catch your attention by painting the picture that you’re carrying around 10+ pounds of ‘waste spackle’ on the inside of your colon that’s built up over a lifetime of bad eating.  I have no idea if that’s true, but it sounds credible and it gives them an opportunity to be a totally different approach to weight loss.

The benefit?  I don’t have to diet or work out, I just have to purge the crap out of my system – gross but plausible.  I don’t think I could pull the trigger on it, but it was enough to make me wonder if it would work.

Finally their call to action is just okay – they give you a phone number and the website and promise a special offer.

Example 2 – be quirky, goofy and demonstrate

The other product ad that caught my eye recently (this time on late night television) was Shamwow (careful – a video of the commercial starts automatically and it’s pretty loud).

This is an old fashioned infomercial style ad that really embraces the cheesy spokesman who is clearly a master of the sales patter.  He catches your attention with his voice and patter right off the bat.

The target audience is kind of fragmented – is it people washing cars, cleaning up messes, taking showers, drying the dogs or hairy people?  My personal opinion is that they try to do to much with one ad, but I’m sure they cut down on costs that way.

Where the ad really shines is the demonstration of the benefits – not only do you hear that you can clean up a mess with one pass, they demonstrate it on a bunch of different stuff.  There are actually some pretty amazing visuals.

The demonstrations provide a lot of credibility, but they may take it just too far – some of the examples look too good to be true.  (By the way, this is another product you should research before you buy – the general feedback is pretty bad, although some of the reviews are funny!).

Finally they make a somewhat compelling call to action that if you call within the next 10 minutes you’ll get double the amount of product for the same price.  Of course that sense of urgency isn’t terribly real when you go onto the web and see that the special offer is really just the baseline apparently it’s an infinite 10 minutes!  Nobody likes to be manipulated that blatantly.

I don’t know that I need this product, but the ad made me want to check them out – which is the purpose of marketing.

But…there’s a Web 2.0 downside to both products

5 to 10 years ago, both of these ads would have likely done much, much better than they will ultimately do in 2008.

The big difference?  With a really simple google search, I can find dozens of comments on what real people had to say about the product.  Nothing’s ever going to make everyone happy, but when more than half the comments that you find in a quick search are extremely negative you really have to think twice and a lot of people won’t buy it.

So the real question is – at what point will these products that are flashy, with effective marketing but ultimately flawed and disappointing stop being sold?

Share your thoughts here – I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

photo by today is a good day 

Are you sick of the word ‘bail out’ yet?

How about all the negative ads on the election?

Has the media convinced you yet that the world has ended?  Now all we’re waiting for is the coup de grace, pigs to fly, hell to freeze over, etc.

With all of the doom and gloom talk going on everywhere you look, I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit why business owners strike out on their own.  I brought this up in one of my advisory board groups last week and asked the question to the group.

“What was the driver for you to strike out on your own?” (start your own business).

I don’t know that the answers were surprising, but revisiting the topic helps put things in perspective (at least for me) and it might be helpful for you.  See if these resonate for you.

Freedom – escaping the cubicle!

This comes out in a lot of different ways, but clearly a huge driver for heading out on your own is the opportunity to chart your own course.  No longer are you answering to a pointy haired boss that doesn’t get it.  You are the one person that determines your own success.

You get to call the shots, make the important decisions (and all of the other decisions as well). 

This is probably the single biggest reason for most people that I know that have gone out on their own.  Yeah a steady paycheck is nice, but the opportunity to achieve a high level of success on your own merits (based on the free market) is really compelling.

Ownership has it’s advantages

As Robert Kiyosaki will tell you over and over again in Rich Dad, Poor Dad the best way to really get ahead in the long run is to build up equity along with your revenue streams.  As a business owner you can build an asset that generates income and is worth something at the end of the day – there’s really no other model that allows that.

It depends on what kind of business you build and how you set it up and run it, but most businesses have the potential to be worth some multiplier of revenue or cash flow (cash flow being the profits the business generates).  For a typical service based business, that multiplier may only be 2X revenues (for a well run business), but that’s still a a great upside compared to nothing that you would get if you are just an employee at a business that’s sold.

Reaching that goal of Financial Independence isn’t easy – but it’s a lot more likely as a business owner than as a typical employee.

I just gotta be me!

This mostly applies to those that previously worked in the corporate world…a world of politics, rigid expectations, an overwhelming pressure to fit in, a running wheel that only went one direction.

You want freedom to make decisions, but just as importantly you want to be yourself – creating a corporate culture that’s important to you, makes sense to you and maybe allows you to have some fun.

You want to set your own hours, you want to establish the priorities of family or health or fun or whatever it might be as more important than money or your business – that’s tough to do as an employee.  If you want to coach your son’s soccer team on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00…well it’s your business, you can make that happen!

Better than the alternative – for a lot of people

Not everyone is cut out to be a business owner – or wants to be a business owner.  It’s a lot of responsibility, it’s not easy and unfortunately there’s a huge learning curve that may take several years to really get over.

However, the alternatives are inheriting a lot of money, winning the lottery or working for someone else.  Most people can’t really count on inheriting (and shouldn’t be counting on the lottery) so that really leaves working for someone else.

Although working for someone has traditionally been thought of as a ‘steady’ paycheck, layoffs and the general economy make any kind of job just as risky as owning a business these days – with a lot less control.

Along the same lines, whether you like it or not, as you get older and demand more money, it will be harder and harder to find worthwhile jobs.  By the way, I’m defining older here as about 35…it definitely becomes a serious problem in your 40s, but anything over 35 these days starts getting serious scrutiny as compared to that relatively cheap 20 something that has tons of energy and great ideas.

“Let me explain…no, there is too much, let me sum up”

Although things look grim and dark, now is actually a great time to have your own small business – I don’t mean that it’s easy and the money is flowing like wine (I’m actually not sure what that means…), but your business has a lot of potential.

There’s a great post from Naomi Dunford (IttyBiz) on Blood In the Streets that does a way better job than I can on covering why this a good time to be making things happen, but to sum up if you really want the upside of having your own business, start looking for ways to rev up what you’re doing. 

Find what works and do more of it, identify what’s not working and start changing it.  Start challenging yourself and your team to take advantages of the resources that are out there. 

Use the internet and market online effectively.

Consider getting a coach or joining an Advisory Board group

Why did you decide to start your own business (or are you thinking about getting out on your own?).  Share your thoughts in the comments below – I’m sure I missed some important ideas.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Business Coach