Recruiting, Acquiring and KEEPING upper echelon employees begins with…

Most companies are striving to get the best employees and keep them as they know this is integral to their success and growth. Competition is steep as the number of “A Players” seems to be dwindling by the day. The consolation? Not many have mastered this art, so making an effort goes a long way!

As usual, let’s start at the beginning…

How do you attract “A players” in the first place?

One of the most innovative and effective ways is by creating interesting and fun videos to tempt great employees and leaders to your company. I have seen this succefully done by companies like Zappos and MindVakkey, it has the top employees coming to them to apply and vy for positions!

But how do we accomplish this for our company when it isn’t young and hip or when we don’t have a fun business because  we sell widgets!

IF your perspective is open and willing, then you can accomplish the goal of painting a picture that is appealing for prospective employees. NOW, let me preface this with this admonition, IF your company only paints the picture as being a good, fair and fun company to work for but it is riddled with a different culture totally, then even if you are successful in recruiting top employees, they will shortly find out the reality and move on to a company that better suits them. SOOOO, this is only the first step to having an employee team of  upper echelon employees.

Alright, so now back tot he video idea…

ANY subject can be fun and interesting if you have the right perspective. You may not have this perspective, so you might want to hire someone to make this or even better, delegate it to some of your employees. Ah! Here’s an idea: Have a contest for different departments to make each a video for recruiting. They can talk about how it is to work there or about events that you hold, whatever. But, then you can have a viewing party and vote for the best video. Make a day out of it!

Don’t believe ANY subject can be funny? Would you think it is possible to be funny when delivering the “speech” all airlines must give before takeoff, “There are four exits…” etc.?

Thin again. Check out this video by Virgin Airlines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyygn8HFTCo&NR=1

Have a recruiting video already? Post a link here, we would love to see it and learn from your example.

To your continued success,

C

 

 

Got publicity? Need to get the word out? Here are 10 ways from Dan Janal to get it out there!

Dan Janal gives us 10 tips on how to publicize our Press Release, article, or event. Give this to your marketing person or team. Let them know the priority level of each, so they know what you expect from them, then let them run with it.

REMEMBER my rule: Set up a check-in point to get a progress report. Determine successes and failures in the system and improve as possible, then implement again.

——-Dan’s list———–

Here are 10 ways to promote your publicity:

1.     Tweet a link to the article. I do this for my clients, when they tell me about their publicity via PR LEADS. I use a provocative title to get attention. Here’s an example: Need writing tips for a job application? @prleads client Diane L Samuels gets publicity on Monster.com http://ow.ly/2tGcI Notice how I use the keyword “publicity” so anyone looking for “publicity” on Twitter will see this. Use your own keywords as well so more people will find your links.

2.     Post the link on your Linked In profile.

3.     Post the link to relevant groups on Linked In.  Heavy emphasis on “relevant.” Don’t post it in places where people wouldn’t care. You’d be hurting yourself if you did that. Also, don’t say “I’m quoted here” and post the link. Tell people what they can learn by reading the article. Your focus should be on sharing information and not appearing self-promotional.

4.     Send the link and article to your prospects, clients and followers via email.

5.     Post the link and the article to your blog.

6.     Frame the article and hang it in your waiting room. Consider highlighting your quotes and name in yellow so it stands out from the rest of the article. The highlighting will focus a reader’s attention directly on your quote.

7.     Copy the article and print it in your sales or marketing kit. The media give you a form of credibility that is unmatched. Use it.

8.     Include the article in your book proposal. Book acquisition editors want to know that you can create publicity for the book. Show them here and you’re more likely to get a contract and more likely to get a larger advance.

9.     Create a list of headlines of articles in which you were quoted and post that to your website. Include live links to the articles. Reporters and prospects will be impressed that you have so many media hits.

10. Use the front page of your website to let the world know you have been quoted. To many clients get PR and hide it! Let the first impression people have of you be from the media.

That oughta keep your publicity team busy!

Want more info about Dan? Here’s his info:

Dan Janal
Your Fearless PR LEADER
http://www.PRLEADSPLUS.com

Let me know if these work for you.

My best,

C

How Google got it’s name… and how that can help you name your business/product/service

The name started as a joke about the amount of information the search engine could search, or a “Googol” of information. (A googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.) When founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin gave a presentation to an angel investor, they received a check made out to “Google.”

Source: How 16 Great Companies Picked Their Unique Names, OPENForum

So, if you are naming your company, a new product or program, look to seldom used words that REALLY personify what you offer. Now, does it matter that the word googol has significance, probably not in the long run as most users have NO idea where the word Google came from. It MAY have been instrumental in the startup phase in emphasizing the massive amount of information.

And so what does this teach us, friends? That quite possibly it doesn’t matter what you name a company. Who’s to say however, Google is the most successful search engine so following the example is a smart gamble.

Product names are quite a bit more important, as you only have so much time to impress upon the consumer the need to purchase, so making it something that communicates the message is ideal. Cute or catchy isn’t as important as being benefit laden. People need to know very quickly the benefit they will experience when they make their purchase.

So, how does your product measure up? When a prospect sees your product name on facebook or a website, does it make an instant impact? Does your book title intrigue them and keep them hooked?

C

How Apple evolves and develops it’s Brand!

They do as Seth Godin says, they take a cliché and do the opposite. THIS is one way we can INNOVATE, like I have been encouraging you to do. As Tony Robbins has pointed out for the duration of this “recession”, you must innovate during this time or you will suffer, because some of your competitors WILL!

To quote Seth:

The effective way to use a cliché is to point to it and then do precisely the opposite. Juxtapose the cliché with the unexpected truth of what you have to offer. Apple does this all the time. They point out the cliché of a laptop or a desktop or an MP3 player and then they turn it upside down.

Richard Branson takes the expected boredom of a CEO and turns it upside down by doing things you don’t expect.

There is power in opposites like this, very often, in that, you can turn a negative into a positive. If your product competitors are very similar to yours (or at least seems that way to prospects), with time, there is a commoditization, that will squeeze any profit out of the venture.If you don’t change the game, it will change and you will pay the consequences.

Like I talked about yesterday in my post, a negative objection from a prospect can be a positive. You can use it to create more success in the future: If competitors chose someone with more “experience”, saying you are younger than your competitors, then build a plan to show that as an advantage. This won’t help for this prospect in particular, but for future prospects, you can be ready. Brand messages for your youth could be:  “Uses the latest breakthrough technology.” “In it for the long haul” (for 30 years instead of the competitor is already 60 so he will retire soon).

What negatives do you see that could be positives?

What we believe shapes our thoughts, our thoughts shape our actions, our actions shape our experience/lives.

What do you believe that could be shaping your life into what you do not want in your future?

C

www.christiescott.com

Waiting for your fairy godmother (venture capitalist/ investor) to save you?

There are no EASY ways to do business. When talking with a client today, I realized something I had never really admitted before, BUSINESS IS TOUGH!

There is no magic bullet, no get-rich-quick. It’s about something much more.

Now, that’s not to say SOME people may find success by being in the right place with the right thing at the right time, but those times are far and few rather than the norm.

Expecting that fairy godmother to come and make all of your dreams come true is a great way to feel like a failure!

THE SMARTER AND MORE SURE WAY TO SUCCESS? FOCUS! Focus on the right things at the right time. Focus on serving your current clients/customers/patients better! Focus on making loyal followers, die-hard fans. (See my post earlier today about Facebook fans and their worth, if you are using social networking as part of your plan.)

Here’s another way to think about it, to quote our man, Seth Godin, “Delight the audience you already have, amaze the customers you can already reach, dazzle the small investors who already trust you enough to listen to you. Take the permission you have and work your way up. Leaps look good in the movies, but in fact, success is mostly about finding a path and walking it one step at a time.”

SOOOOOOOOOOO? How will this change your day, your month, your year?

C

Why having NO Money or Budget when you start your business can be an ADVANTAGE! A Seth Godin case study.

So, Seth Godin tells about this company that did not have the money to spend on a sign that truly describes the product type, and amazingly this probably contributed to MORE success!!

“When Blythe and her partners started Lula’s Apothecary, the best vegan ice cream stand in this hemisphere, they didn’t have enough money to afford the letters to put “Dairy free” on the sign in their window. They couldn’t even afford “vegan.” So the signage says nothing about what they don’t put in their ice cream.

What they discovered was that word among the tribe of vegans in the East Village of New York City (an even bigger group than you might imagine) spread fast. The product was remarkable enough that just a few happy customers were enough to spread the word.

The other thing they discovered is that non-vegans were willing to walk on in if the place looked cool enough. In fact, the lack of ingredient-declaration on their window actually helped them reach out to people who might have been scared away at the lack of milk.”

So, allow the LIMITATIONS of your budget or time or employees, to work FOR your benefit! Allow this limitation to equate to a WIN! See how this can work for you rather than limit you!

If you don’t have money for a sign, then how can that actually be a benefit?

If you don’t have the money to redecorate your retail store, how can you make this an opportunity?

When you don’t have an advertising budget, how can you use that to inspire improvement?

Change, improve, make this work for you!

I want to hear about it!

C

How to charge thousands and be absolutely worth it!

Be a linchpin!
Seth Godin relays this story to illustrate: I had a college professor who did engineering consulting. A brand new office tower in Boston had a serious problem–there was a brown stain coming through the drywall, (all of the drywall) no matter how much stain killer they used. In a forty story building, if you have to rip out all the drywall, this is a multi-million dollar disaster. They had exhausted all possibilities and were a day away from tearing out everything and taking a loss. They hired Henry in a last-ditch effort to solve the problem. He looked at the walls and said, “I think I can work out a solution, but it will cost you $45,000 if I succeed.” They instantly signed on, because if he succeeded, the project would be saved.

Henry asked for a pencil and paper and wrote the name of a common hardware store chemical and handed it to them. “Here, this will work.” And then he billed them $45,000. That’s quite an hourly wage. It’s also quite a bargain.

Read Linchpin to get ideas on how to be a linchpin, but the bottom line is: WHAT VALUE do YOU bring to your buyers?

The problem with us humans is that we over value what we do. You may fight to admit it, but it is a REAL problem.

If you don’t believe me, read Harry Beckwith’s book, Selling the Invisible.

So, IF you want to grow your hourly wage? OR just continue to justify it in a poor economy, then get honest, how much VALUE do you bring? And then concentrate on how to bring even more value. Under-promise, over-deliver! Thre was never a time where this was more important.

Ok, so here we are again, at the point where I ask you, what will this change, improve, alter, in what you do today, tomorrow, next week, month and year.

As you know, if you change nothing, you have gained nothing and you have lost the time you have spent reading (sigh), once again. SOOOOOO, get to it.

My absolute best,

C

Why I hate marketing and sales!

A little over a year ago, in a conversation with a fascinating colleague of mine, I realized that I hate marketing and sales! How it took me so long to realize it, is beyond me and out of my cognitive dissonance I will myself to believe that it is because I am good at it, so I didn’t notice

But, alas, during this heated conversation about why I wasn’t going to fight another consultant for this client, that I wouldn’t create an elaborate layout about why I was THE choice for the client, not the other, I said it. I hate it. I hate monetizing, I hate marketing, I hate selling. BUT, only when it comes to myself. I can sell you, or your product, a certain doctor to go to, a program to purchase, a book that I love! And I will do it well, and I won’t hate it!

I am actually fascinated by marketing, I have read almost every marketing book in existence, I love it, in theory.

I only hate it when it comes to ME!

I have pondered this for the past year and as I realize more that I hate it, I do it less and less, I want to sell less and less, I try to CLOSE less and less. So, how long can you run a sole-practitioner service business without selling? Ah, it’s gone ok so far! And I don’t have to do something I hate. Instead I lay out my best, I give it all, leave it on the table for the prospect to pick up and win or to walk away.

This just feels better to me.

And that makes me happy.

It’s like Patrick Lencioni’s new book, Getting Naked, the Lighthouse consulting company did the same. They just consulted, not sold.

What would happen if all service professionals did this? Especially those that spend the majority of their time selling, what if we just did what we do best?

How many people and businesses could we help? How could we impact the world?

That’s when I am happy, when I am helping people. What about you?

“WAIT!!!! I LIKE selling,” you say. Well, good, then come on over sell my stuff for me and leave the service work (coaching and consulting to those of us that find that our gift!).

What do you think? Do you like sales? Marketing?

How will this change what you do today?

Yours absolutely truly,

C

How great and successful businesses FAIL when markets change… and what to do about it!

I was working with a client last fall. The client has a successful business that has taken a serious dip, more like a freefall with the changes in this economy. It was a MAJOR struggle to get this client back to running in the black. I had to break the seemingly harsh news to this client “You are basically a start up business at this point. You have to treat the business as if you are just getting it going. You must rebuild your clientele, your product line, your service offerings, retrain your employees.” The client was SHOCKED, upset, letdown and did NOT want to view things in this way. Why was it so difficult? Why can’t we, once we are successful, continue to perpetuate that success in times of flux or market change?

Well, for this client in particular, 6 months was all it took to get profitable again, but the journey is ongoing to get employees to a trained level of expertise and get my client extracted enough so that the business is not all consuming.

But, what happens? When there is change in the market, there is a shift that generally business owners do not change or innovate with. Why not?

WE FORGET WHAT GOT US TO WHERE WE ARE.

Running a business is like having a long term relationship. You get stagnant, bored, lose ground, possibly lose it altogether, because you do NOT continue doing what gave you the success in the first place.

You might have tried to be nice and buy little gifts for that person, make them dinner, help them feel better when they were sick, DVR thier favorite shows, send them nice little notes to surprise them… and on and on.

But, with time, we get sidetracked and we stop doing those things. AND we replace those activities with something else that might actually deteriorate the relationship. We start putting whatever WE want on record in the DVR, we decorate how we want to, we make ourselves food, without regard for the other person. We complain whenever they are sick, gain weight and stop working out as much or simply just become calloused to the relationship and take it for granted.

THIS creates rifts, tears us apart, causes us to lose sight of the GOOD that came from that relationship.

So, IF we get ourselves straightened out, understand what we want and work hard for it again, MAYBE we can save that relationship and be more balanced in how we treat it for some time. Then, we will lapse into other ways of not appreciating that relationship and we have to go back to center again.

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO BUSINESS? Well, it is the same, we stop doing what made it so successful. We stop marketing regualrly, we stop networking, we don’t work nights and weekends on building it, we don’t talk about it to everyone we know, (it won’t be all of these of course, but what ever you did before, you generally stop doing with time).

IF you go back and evaluate, you will find there is a function or an activity that you could RE-deploy that would bring you more success and quick. IF you evaluate the things that really worked for you, you will see things you should have never stopped doing, but you got sidetracked, calloused or simply too busy to do well anymore. GO BACK! IT’S NOT TOO LATE, YET!

So, what will you change? Add? DO differently? Go back to?

IF YOU DON’T CHANGE SOMETHING, YOU HAVE WASTED YOUR TIME HERE, get to work!

My absolute best, as always!

C

The ONLY thing you need to do to build your business!

There is ONE thing that you need to build your business. I know! I know! You have all of these other things that you need to do to RUN your business.  Believe me, there is ONE thing that will make you successful! That one thing will create leads or create sales, create followers, whatever you want to achieve.

What is this, you say?

Well, it is different for each company. Sometimes, it is one referral source that works like gangbusters and all you have to do is manage the leads and convert them and of course, rake in the money.

Maybe it is one type of marketing, like radio or social media or PR. You know it is the old rule of 20% of your activities will bring 80% of the results. Actually, the pendulum swings even further, 5-10% of your efforts will make 90-95% of the results.

NOW, I don’t mean that you should only put in 5% of the effort! I MEAN you should spend 80-90% of your efforts on very strategic activities that will bring you major results, RATHER than spreading yourself SO THIN, that you only get a 5% return here or there for your efforts.

So, how do you know what those high-return activities are? Well, think back, what have you done in the past to create most of your success? If you want more leads, then how have you found the right leads en masse?

Has it been with referrals?

Then, how do you improve what you used to do? How do you systematize that effort and build on that success?

THIS sort of strategy, DONE WELL, can rock your world and change the game for you!

1. Think about your problem or a goal you would like to achieve.

2. List how you have found the MOST success in the past with solving this problem.

3. Determine how you improve this, then systematize it, and of course DO IT!

As always, hardly any one will improve according to something they have read, so be the upper echelon and allow this to improve and change what you do today, tomorrow and next week! Otherwise… (read in a singsong voice) we are wasting our time here!

Absolutely my best to you!

C