Top 3 Categories of Questions Every Business Owner Must Ask Their Team in July

What are the three categories of questions every business owner must ask their team in July and why?  Watch YouTube...

It’s the start of the second half of the year and let’s cover these three categories of questions.

1. How did we do compared to our ActionPLAN?  
   • Marketing - How many new prospects were attracted to us and for existing customers how much interest was sparked for additional products and services?   
   • Sales - How have our offers performed to add new customers and for existing customers increase average dollar sale and number of transactions?  
   • Operations - How effective and efficient were we in delivering on time, to spec and budget?
2. What did we learn and what are the implications for us?   Ask what are customers telling us?  How are our systems keeping up - technologically, regulatory, competitively?  What skills and competencies should our team be adding?  
3. What do we need to believe to achieve and our second half goals?

There really is a 4th category too.  “How can I, the owner, help you, my team member, best?”  Remember your role as owner is to develop your team to delight your customers and they’ll take care of business and the business takes care of you - the owner.

Now go have July’s conversation. 

If what you learn is that things are not on track or you want to accelerate your growth, then let’s talk.  I offer a complimentary 60 to 90 min session to understand your situation and I guarantee you at least a half dozen implementable strategies to maximize your effectiveness in the 2nd half of the year.

Call me at ph:  972 709 6776 or Email:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let’s get started...accelerating your growth.  You’ll work less and make more.

How to Avoid Facilitating Your Meetings as a Lion Tamer

Business owners - want to have fewer yet more productive meetings?  

Welcome to “Conversations every business owner has with their team.”  And today’s topic is how to have your people in fewer more productive meetings without you having to be a facilitation lion tamer.  

Situation - “Another meeting, I don’t have time for a meeting.”  “We never accomplish anything.”  You get the sentiments.   Yet you must have meetings to exchange ideas, engage your group, problem solve or coordinate action.  

Let’s assume you’ve done the meeting basics - clear agenda and purpose and invited the right people to participate.

 

Here’s a simple tip to keep your group more productive and engaged at your next meeting or work session.

The crux of the solution is a large sign.  It has an arrow pointing up corresponding to constructive and a down arrow siting a destructive comment or question.  Participants ask themselves to which degree their comment or question moves the agenda forward.  You get the picture.  With these two arrows they can test whether they are about to suggest adding or subtracting from the agendas purpose.  

This doesn’t mean that important or negative views or news is not spoken, quite the contrary.  It’s saying, “Stay on the agendas topic.”  

A simple pointing to or looking at the arrows keep participants on topic.

A Hierarchy of Constructive Comments or Questions are described as:

Destructive  comments or questions are increasingly detrimental if?  

Introduce these arrows and descriptors at your next meeting, explain the meeting ‘rules of the game’ and you’ll improve productivity, increase moral and leave with clear next steps.  That’s everyone’s definition of progress!

Still having challenges making your meeting as productive and positive as possible, then let’s talk.  I offer a complimentary 60 to 90 min session to understand your team dynamics.

I guarantee you at least a half dozen implementable ideas to maximize your time by reducing the number of meetings and improving the effectiveness of the ones held.

Call me at ph:  972 709 6776 or Email:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let’s get started...building and operation as a high quality team.  You’ll work less and make more.

"Your Price is Too High...!" How does Your Sales Team Respond?

Business owners - how do your sales people react to the objection, “Your Price is Too High?”  Are they amateurs or professionals and can find out what is really holding back the customer?    

Watch YouTUBE video...

Welcome to “Conversations every business owner has with their sales team.”  And today’s topic covers how your sales team reacts or responds when they receive the price objection.  

“Your price is too high!”  Now, you may be getting somewhere with your customer.  They're acknowledging the need for a solution, so follow up with further questions.

 

Here are 21 responses that will increase the probability engaging the customer and learning what’s keeping them back from purchasing.

Instead of reacting agasped and surprised as an amature, practice responding as a professional and ask with confidence...  

1. Which means?
2. Compared to what?
3. What was your expectation?  
4. If our competitor is much less, what does that tell you?  
5. You can always find a cheaper solution but you won't find both the quality and value.  Isn't that what interests you?
6. I am glad you mentioned price.  Is it the amount or the terms?  
7. It is high compared to what some companies charge.  What does the fact that we have over 500 customers buying from us imply?  
8. You really feel that our price is too high?  Could you explain that for me?
9. It costs only about 15¢ per hour of operation.  What kind of peace of mind does that buy?
10. If it wasn’t the price is there anything else that is getting in the way making a decision to purchase?
11. Our price is high, compared to what some others companies in the field in charge.  But I believe it’s not high enough for what it does.  As a matter of fact, as the economy improves we're expecting a price increase any day.  Why not buy now and get our high quality at today’s price?
12. Have you ever figured the price of not having a high quality?  The price of breakdown, the cost of wasted time, the extra phone calls, the headaches, the repairs bills…you see, high quality actually saves you money in the long run.  Let’s compare when we add these cost?
13. Don’t deceived by today's prices.  You actually pay less because we are giving you more service, more quality, more expertise, and more security.  Isn’t that what you really interested in?
14. The sweetness of low price is quickly forgotten when you have to deal day after day with the bitterness of low quality.
15. We can lower the price right now, but you need to make a decision on what options to cut from our proposal.  Okay?
16. I might get in trouble for saying this, but I know a way to save you a few bucks.  What if I cut my commission on this transaction to lower the price?  
17. Yes, we are not the cheapest in our field; however, we do over $8 Million a year at the same price.  We cannot do that if our customers weren't convinced that this is the best buy.  Wouldn't you agree?
18. Does your company pay you only to buy the cheapest products?  Are they really interested in getting the best value for the dollar?  Shall we talk about value?
19. Our price is too high?  We very rarely hear that, what do you mean?
20. How much too high is it?  Do you realize that if you keep and use your products for 5 years, and most people do, the price difference is only 12¢ a day?  Isn't it worth 12¢ a day to have the very best?
21. If it were cheaper, would you want it?  Good!  Then what you are telling me is that you're interested.  Let's look at some ways you can afford it!

So there you have it, 21 ways to respond and most are questions that get the customer to share what's holding them back from a purchase.  Some of these responses may not be suitable for your situation but use this as a brainstorm with your sales team to come up with the right ones for them.  And then practicing these responses so they ask the follow-up questions confidently to engage the customer vs being argumentative or defensive with the customer.

Obviously, the best sales engagements address price long before it comes up from the customer.  How to avoid the price objection is the subject of another blog.

If your sales team is facing objections like price that's consistently hindering sales, let's have a discussion on improving their effectiveness.

Call me at ph:  972 709 6776 or em:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let's get started...improving your sales team’s effectiveness to give you back control of your business, so you can earn more and work less...

Hi Stephen Marino, with ActionCOACH - World’s #1 Business Coaching firm, successfully coaching thousands of business owners globally over the past 20 years through the numerous boom/bust economic cycles to overcome the time, team, money and systems obstacles that get in the way of predictable increasing profits and productivity.

How to Humanize B2B Marketing and Sales Conversations

Conversations Every Business Owner has with Their Marketing and Sales Team Series

Today’s question is, “What guidance do you give your marketing and sales team on how to humanize what you sell, especially in a B2B environment?”

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What you sell is stuff – it’s tangible and intangible products and services providing functionality, knowhow, speed, convenience, labor, compliance, feel good and confidence.  What they buy is you and your company’s promise to deliver on-time, to spec, on budget and wow – every time. 

The overarching premise is that you are having a conversation with a person in a company.  Yes, prioritize the person in the B2B environment.  The key to humanizing the discussion is to go beyond logic that gets them thinking and rationalizing and to personal emotion that gets them acting. 

Here are 7 tips get your marketing and sales team focused on humanizing your offering…

1.  Be Human:  Engage authentically, be genuine, show competence, as well as, vulnerability and character

2.  Tell a Story:  People listen to stories especially ones where they can see themselves participating.  Give them a beginning, middle and end with the point on how they benefit

3.  Site Relevant Statistics/Facts:  Research the evidence that describes their problems, the implications and how it doesn’t need to be that way.  You have a solution

4.  Ask your audience what’s important via conversations, interviews and surveys.  Ask what’s their #1 obstacle interfering with their productivity and profitability is it Time, Team, Money and/or Systems?  Why that one?  What would they do to overcome this obstacle?  Dig deep and don’t assume the answer.  They must acknowledge and express the discomfort and only then, can they decide to change 

5.  Show Social Proof:   Capture and document your customer Advocates and Raving Fans doing your selling for you.  “If I got these benefits so can you.”  If you say it, it may be true or not.  If they hear if from other’s it more credible

6.  Be news worthy:  Create events where the media wants to publicize it    

7.  Assure them they are not alone and you’re not going to judge them.  Demonstrate you hear, understand and appreciate their situation

To accelerate implementing how to humanize what you sell in a B2B environment, let’s talk.  I offer a complementary marketing and sales assessment.  And you’ll learn how to sell more by humanizing your marketing and sales conversations vs. competing on price and features.    Let’s get started…

Call 972 709 6776 or Email:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com 

Which is Harder to Calculate - Acquisition Cost of the Moon or Your Customer?

As a kid during the 1960's I was excited and enthralled when President Kennedy declared there would be a man on the moon before the end of the decade.  By then I wouldn't need my parent's permission to go, either. I eagerly followed all of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs leading up to the moon landing on July 20, 1969. I sought out opportunities to retell the story for science class in reports with information covered by national television, radio, New York Times, National Geographic, Time and Life articles as the subject was too new to have books published. I even continued the pursuit with undergraduate studies. I served in the military and kept my options open.  Eventually, the military allowed me to apply and was screened for the shuttle astronaut program in 1981. I didn't make the cut. 

Since that time, I've soared in the business environment while following the NASA missions.  Last week I heard a telling marketing statistic by David Meerman Scott, co-author of "Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program." "Can you imagine deciding that we’re going to send 12 people to the surface of the moon and it's going to cost 4 percent of the national budget and 2 percent of the national workforce for a decade? So we had to sell it."  Heck, I didn't need to be sold, I bought it.  

Regardless, what he just stated was the acquisition cost to walk on the moon in tangible terms.  Wow, if they can put numbers to that audacious feat why can't most business owners put numbers to what it cost them to acquire a customer?  Or the cost to retain a customer and determine the a customer's lifetime value?

To be fair, I did rocket off an email to the co-authors asking what the lifetime value of walking on the moon was?  I haven't received their number back...

To determine and reduce your customer acquisition and retention cost and increase their lifetime value numbers...Let's talk.  

call ph: 972 709 6776 or em: StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

What Level Business Do You Operate? And What You Can Do to Move Up

Business Owners – Do you notice the term “take your business to the next level a lot?”

What does that mean?

Watch YouTube Video

It assumes clarity on where you are, where you’re going, as well as, the resources and time to get there.  If you’re like many of the thousands of business owners ActionCOACH has coached over the past 20+ yrs, you'll be interested in these 3 significant findings…

First, we have general agreement that the goal is…

“to create a commercial profitable business that ultimately works without the owner always being there.”  

What was vague were the intermediate levels to achieve this?  Vagueness created reservation, doubt and maybe fear, thus kept you from achieving the critical mass necessary to accelerate you and your business forward.  You end up languishing - taking longer, working harder and incurring too much debt and stress along the way.

Second finding was that most owners believed they really deserved better for the energy, money and time they committed.  Their families especially believes this.

Finally, when asked are they open to accelerating their growth - less stressfully?  Most were initially curious and appropriately skeptical yet eager to know more…

Hi this is Stephen Marino - ActionCOACH - The Worlds #1 Business Coaching Firm.  And for the past 21 years, through numerous boom/bust economic cycles, we’ve successfully coached thousands of business owners.  Specifically coaching owners globally between ~$1 mm to ~$9 mm revenues with 3 to 45 employees…through our 6 levels of business development in dozens of industry segments, with all types of business owner personalities from over 800 offices around the globe.

So we know this path works.  

I’ll share how in a coaching relationship we mitigate the time, team, money and systems obstacles that get in the way of predictable increasing profits and productivity.

Here are the 6 levels to your “commercial profitable business what works without you.”

What level business do you operate?

I’ll share the 6 levels, starting with top level 6 – Results because that’s where we want to be and work backwards down to level 1 - Mastery.

Watch for the level that's most descriptive of your current situation.

When I’m finished, you’ll know exactly where you’re starting and how much further it is to the profitable business that works without you.

The top level is Level 6.  It's a RESULTs business.

The business operates “for” the owner, without the owner working “in” the business.

The RESULTs are so stellar you have freedom of choice, lots of dividends, discretionary time and operational capabilities to expand, diversify and/or replicate…

And when the decision to transition from the business comes, you earn the premium valuation.

At Level - 6 Results, you’re feeling great and have lots of options.

Congratulations if this is where you operate.

Otherwise, you may be at a level 5 business…

A Level 5 business is at the Synergy Level with a COO, President or GM conducting the day-to-day business.

At Synergy the Owner/Operator does only what they are genius at…

Sound like you?  Great.

If not, then you may operate at Level 4?

Level 4 is a TEAM Level business – where your team makes decisions in your economic and customer interests.

There is strong leadership, a common goal, rules of the game, action plan, initiative expected and 100% team inclusion and participation.

At Level 4 – Team, business is fun.  You’re surrounded by a high quality team.

Not you, then you may be at Level 3…

Level 3 – business level is at LEVERAGE for maximum productivity and effectiveness.

The routine is systematized and exceptions are humanized.

A vision, mission, values, SMART goals, KPI’s, position agreements, procedures for marketing/sales, operations, admin/log/finance/IT, customer retention and management are all documented.

It's a great feeling knowing that once a sale is made it’ll be delivered on time, spec, budget and wow!

Every time!  

Not at this level then you may be at level 2…

Level 2 – business is at NICHE Level.  It has predictable cash flows generated from marketing and sales.

The customer experience delivered differentiates you from the competition.

You’re not competing on price.  You have a great guarantee.  It’s easy to do business with you.

You’re attracting more and more new customers and retaining your existing customers longer.

You measure and test all strategies for lead generation, conversion rates, number of transactions, average dollar sale, and your margins.

Your marketing machine is generating more leads than you can handle.

You have a predictable rewarding sales process.  

You know your customer acquisition and retention cost and their lifetime value.

Level 2 Niche gives you confidence in your future.

Not at this level, then you may be at level 1…

Level 1 – Business has MASTERY of the fundamentals.

A compelling direction, why you’re in business and control of your money:  a budget, cash flows, break-even, margins and…KPI’s, capability of delivering as promised after the sale and wisely uses the owner/operator’s time.

At this level you experience being God-like as described in Genesis…“And saw that it was good” going from chaos to control.

Which level was most descriptive of where you’re at?

Regardless of where you're starting...Here’s your way to close the gap between your current level and the level you want to be.

It starts with us having a conversation and sharing information about the level business you operate today. We’ll invest time and energy to know each other.  We’ll exchange information on the phone, FedEx, email and web about who I am and ActionCOACH while I gain insights from you about your business.

If we both decide we want to know more we’ll invest another 60 to 90 mins one-on-one for a business diagnostic, with your key decision makers, likely at your business location, to assess solutions and options.

The business diagnostic is a complementary session.

We seek understanding at what level the business is operating at today, your objectives, what’s working and where are the shortcomings. 

Only now we’re ready to assess strategies to move you forward…

And, we’ll even take this discussion to the crucial next step of quantifying the benefit of increasing the number of customers, revenues and profits by working together in a coaching relationship.

How encouraging is that…?

Do we guarantee our work? 

Short answer is “Yes.”

You do your part and I mine. And if in the first 17 weeks you don’t receive at least a benefit greater than the investment in coaching…the next 17 weeks are free.

So you can see why I’m selective about who I coach?

Because you control my reputation which I’ve kept unblemished for 15 years. And that’s all I have.

And professionally, if we both don’t see at least double digit increases in customers, revenues and profits or major freeing up of your time and stresses then we’re not likely to to proceed forward.

There are several coaching options from our flagship one-on-one coaching to group coaching, workshops and seminars, digital and book libraries on the 6 levels.

There’s even a special projects coaching option.

Now we’re in a position to make an informed decision on whether working together is mutually beneficial.

I can determine whether I can help you and you can determine if coaching is right for you.

Now you know what it means to take your business to the next level. Let’s get started…

Call me at ph:972 709 6776 or

eM: StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com
It’s that simple. 

For those that say you’ll think about it… 

Think about this…

If you continue working harder and longer, are you likely get any special heroic recognition from your banker, your spouse, your accountant, your kids or your attorney by running your business through back-breaking work and long hours…?

Do you have every right to expect and achieve your goals as fast and least stressfully as possible?

Finally, as you reflect on these questions can you think of any good reason to operate a business in Texas and lack the knowhow, accountability and motivation to move to the next level?

Let’s get started…

Your business coach…
Stephen D. Marino

Master License Partner - OneCo

Ph: 972 709 6776

Em: StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

How to Gage When You've Gone Beyond Break-even to Super Profitability

Business owners - How do you gage when your business is beyond break-even and onto profitability?  One answer for break-even is having money in your bank account at the end of the month.  A better answer is covering not only the day-to-day expense and having funds anticipating capital improvements, operational repairs and maintenance, labor cost for additional employees, taxes due, servicing debt, as well as, your marketing and sales.  

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However, many owners with 3 to 35 employees acquiring this number accurately, timely and consistently is daunting.  This requires knowing exactly the fixed cost to operate the business, being able to predict their variable cost to provide their products and services and forecasting their sales.  Where their sales exceed expense, that the break-even point, and everything beyond that is your profit.

Sounds simple...but not easy.  

Knowing your breakeven number is like knowing the score in a ball game.  Without it, you don’t know if your business is ahead or behind and which strategies you’d employ.

If you’re open to getting the knowhow and solutions to understand important numbers in your business and what drives them then let’s have a conversation to move your business toward super profitability.

pH: 972 709 6776 eM: StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let's get you back in control of your business today...

Which is More Important - Entrepreneur's Character or Idea?

Whether you're the bank, an angel or venture capital investor which counts most, the entrepreneur's/business owner's character or their idea?  

View YouTube - What Counts Most - Character or Idea?

A big fallacy is people believing that if only they had one great idea the business takes care of itself.  Bill Gates developed someone else's idea into Microsoft DOS idea.  Steve Job leveraged Steve Wozniak's engineering prowess into Apple.  And if you look in the US Patent Office you'll find plenty of brilliant ideas that have gone nowhere without a person with the character to build success.  

Investors seek to understand the owner, their motives, beliefs, skills, values and identity.  They look into the owner's past performance and circumstances as to how they've overcome time, team, money and system challenges and still found success.  The investor is making money with money.  They want a commensurate risk/return "of" and "on" their capital.  They ascertain from the owner whether they will convert the investor's money into greater value.  

So before you seek an investor, work harder on yourself, your character than the idea - to be worthy of investment.  And if you're going to work harder, wouldn't you also want to work smarter?  

Just like any sports team with a coach they work smarter to achieve more faster than they would otherwise.  Is it any different in business?  

Do you believe that with an accomplished business coach would you get the know-how, insights to ask higher quality questions, improving your skills, impacting your beliefs and values about what’s possible which ultimately allows you to make higher quality decisions and take actions that move you to your goal of a commercial profitable business that works without you always being there?  And isn’t that why you started your business in the first place?  

Let's get started...give me a call today.  

ph:  972 709 6776  em:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com