Have you noticed how people seem even more “crazy busy” this December than last?  Of course, the 12th month of the business calendar is always truly insane - loose ends to tie up - business to close - performance reviews, planning meetings, projects that absolutely positive have to be completed - all urgent and massively stressful because we are also juggling oh-so-jolly holiday parties, crisis holiday shopping, and drive-by get-togethers with family and friends.  

This year seems particularly nutty.  Once the economy showed signs of life in the fourth quarter, everybody was making hay while the sun shines (as my Midwest grandparents used to say).  It reminds me of college when I tried in vain to cram four months worth of half-hearted classroom learning into my brain during 4 hours of studying for a final.  

Having acknowledged the insanity I’m now going to suggest something crazy- adding one more thing to your end-of-year to-do list.  

ITEM: Take time to clean out your 2009 “business regrets closet.” 

Why?

• It’s been a tough year and at the end of this long road
• You may still be holding on to regrets that will hold you back in 2010 
• Thoughts such as, what I could have done, should have done, didn’t do, wanted to do: useless
• 2009 is over.  We did our best.  We survived.  We are stronger. 
• Time to get ready for what could be the best year of your life.  

Closet purging for me is a hobby. Anybody who knows me will tell you that I love to clean out my closet.  My husband would it’s a virtue that long ago crossed the line to obsession.  Blame it on my close friendship with the world’s best wardrobe consultant, Mary Lou Andre.  

Mary Lou started helping me with my wardrobe back in the television news days.  She employed the most amazing system for cleaning closets you’ve ever seen.   You try everything on and play “tough love” by discarding anything, and I mean anything and everything that you don’t love, doesn’t fit, doesn’t suit your current lifestyle, or doesn’t owe you anything.  It’s work; physically exhausting.  However, when you’re finished you have all this wonderful open-space. 

And then, when you’re finished, you don’t rush out and fill it up again.  You leaave it open for awhile.  When you do go shopping, you fill the closet strategically.  You take a list.  You purchase with a plan.  

This proven process is a perfect metaphor for the approach to jettisoning your business regrets.  Take inventory of the things intended to do but didn’t, and ask yourself these questions.

• Does it still fit with my goals?
• Does it suit my lifestyle? 
• Do I still really want to do it?
• Will it matter to my professional life?
• If there were “white space” could I fill it with something better?   
• Will I truly regret not doing it? 
• If I don’t do it what would be the consequences?

Answer the questions, be honest, and take some of that stuff out of your psychic closet.     

Let me give you an example of how I intend to put this to work in my business this year. 

In December every year just like most people we scheduled performance reviews.  It was fascinating to read what members of my team wrote this year.  It was like peaking in the closet and noticing suits or shirts or dresses they hadn’t worn in a year.  Each member of the team highlighted goals that they had set out to do at the beginning of 2009 that hadn’t been done.  It struck me that there were good reasons.  While they had made notes in the margin such as ”still need to…” or “get going on this finally,”  my thought was, “why?” 

Don’t get me wrong - we should all hold ourselves accountable and if a goal is important, get it done.  But sometimes there is a good reason we haven’t taken action.  While we may not be consciously making the decision, our subconscious realizes it is no longer a fit.  The best thing we can do is take it out of the closet, give it away and leave space open for the things that we really aspire to do and hope to achieve.

What about you?

• Do you have items on the to list that are not central to who you are and what you intend to become?  
• Take an honest inventory, try them on, play tough love, and put them into the discard pile. 
• If you really mustkeep it put it into storage - the cedar closet of your mind - at the bottom of the list under the category  ”Someday Maybe.”  

There is only so much time.  

Imagine how you will feel when you clean out our business regrets closet and make room for those beautiful new projects, personal and professional, that suit your lifestyle, your goals and your personality.  Picture coming back to work in January with white space on your calendar and space in your head for the perfect “suit.”  What would you be able to do if you actually have the energy and opportunity to create something even better than you imagined before?  

If you have suggestions for our readers about how to clean out the regrets closet, hit leave a reply and fire away.  And happy cleaning.

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Saturday the National Speaker’s Association New England Chapter invited Colleen Francis, sales guru, to give a presentation on spending less time selling more at greater profit. I slapped myself on the head (like the V-8 commercial - “I could have had a V8!!) when she said one of the most powerful tools you have in sales and marketing is to make communication with clients and prospects ROUTINE.    

If I’m really honest I’d say that  I’m pretty good about communicating but is isn’t that PREDICTABLE.  For example, I blog three times a week but not always; I twitter most days but its difficult when I’m traveling; we have sent out a newsletter for 8 years but not on the same day.  What Colleen is talking about is creating a communication plan that is so consistent that when people don’t get your latest memo they call to see if you’ve broken your leg in a skiing accident or left on vacation to Bora Bora.  They are actually disappointed when they don’t hear from you on a Monday or a Wednesday.  

This principle of consistent communication consistently applies to sales but leadership. 

Some years ago interviewing Charlie Baker, CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, for my first book, Speak Like a CEO.  Charlie described how he turned arond the faltering health insurance company by communicating consistently.  Every Friday he sat down and wrote an email to the entire team explaining where they were and where they were going next; the good, bad and ugly.  They knew what he knew.  While it must have seemed they were working against all odds, these emails provided hope because they were part of the inner circle.  Every Friday, when that email landed in their boxes, they read them and often forwarded them to other interested parties.  Charlie didn’t mind because it helped solidify support for HPHC.  They turned it around.

Charlie always said consistent communication was one of the biggest factors in their success. By the way, he is now a formidable candidate for governor in Massachusetts.  No surprise there.

So how does this principle apply to you?  Are you communicating consistently?    

Here are some signs that you could improve in this area. (Full disclosure: I have made all these mistakes)

• You tend to communicate when there is bad news
• You only meet with clients/customers/employees on an “as needed” basis
• You find it easy to do until your schedule breaks down and then you sacrifice it to the crisis
• People important to your company or business sometimes say, “what a surprise to hear from you.” 
• You haven’t had a town hall meeting, staff meeting, client meeting in more than a year
• When you get on the phone people say “we should really talk more often” 

The secret to making this commitment to consistency is to put it on the calendar.  If you’ve read Motivate like a CEO, you know my advice: set the intention, schedule the intention and then honor the intention.  Where I think I could improve is frequency.  How about you? 

I welcome your thoughts, please “leave a reply” if you’d like to share tips on how you have increased the frequency and consistency of your communication.  

PS:  More about Colleen: she has studied the habits of the top 10% of sales performers from organizations of all sizes and shapes - from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses. She condensed this winning formula into an internationally acclaimed sales training system, helping sales professionals everywhere to make an immediate and lasting impact to their results. She believes that there really isn’t a single magic formula to success. Rather, her researched, field–tested approach is about consistently applying a common sense process for listening to, working with, and tending to the needs of customers.  Check her out at http://www.engageselling.com/colleenfrancis_index.shtml

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I’m often asked how you measure the impact of better communication on your company’s success.  Watson Wyatt recently published a 2009-2010 survey that shows communication is a leading indicator of financial performance and a driver of employee engagement.  According to the survey, companies that have highly effecctive communicators had 47% higher total returns to shareholders over the last five years compared to firms that are the least effective communicators.

The survey found the best companies invest in helping leaders and managers communicate with their employees.  They measure how effectively they are communicating. ”Companies that are less effective communicators are three times as likely as highly effective communicators to report having no formal measurement of communication effectiveness,” which proves once again that what gets measured gets done.

Watson Wyatt says successful firms: 

• articulate the employee value proposition
• use social media to reach employees in real time
• treat their managers as a special audience
• focus on the customer
• measure behavior change and business outcomes

The term “employee value proposition” broadly refers to what employees can expect from the company and what the company expects from employees.  While Watson Wyatt defines this as pay, benefit, professional development and work environment.  I would expand the definition of employee value proposition.  As you know if you follow this column or have read my second book, Motivate Like a CEO, Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! (McGraw Hill 2009) I believe leaders need to connect people with purpose and passion toward a common goal.  Once employees basic needs are met, you still must help them engage by harnessing their talent and skills and aligning them with the mission of the organization.   As a leader, your success depends upon communicating and aligning the organization with a powerful purpose.  Those who do make a huge impact on your company’s financial performance.  It’s inevitable.

If you don’t believe you’re a ten on a scale of ten when it comes to communicating the value proposition, Watson Wyatt recommends that you “re-communicate” it to your employees.  We are closing out a challenging year, where we’ve focused our communication on cost cutting, productivity and protecting the business; all necessary.  However, now is a good time to get out and re-engage your employees in seeing how they can make great things happen next year.  Talk about financial performance but then engage them by sparking their imagination and sharing your mission and goals.  Harness the purpose and passion that will carry you into 2010 and improve your top line growth.  People are ready and willing to get engaged and will respond to leaders who recognize their talent and encourage them to become part of the grand plan.  

Here are three steps you can take right now to make this happen:

• Get clear in your own mind what the value proposition is.  Write it out and make sure that your top leaders agree.  What is the mission and purpose that drives your business forward and will engage your employees?
• Include the employee value proposition in all communications.  This includes your end of year performance presentation, end of year performance reviews, emails, and informal conversations.
• Create a robust feedback loop.  This will help you monitor whether employees are getting the employee value proposition message.  You can do this formally through surveys and informally through brown bag lunches, off-site planning meetings and conversations.

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If you want to be successful in sales you know what you need to do.   

• Find out what the customer wants. 
• Create a high value proposition for the customer. 
• Give the customer what they want. 

Step one is what trips up most sales people.

Why?

They never find out what they customer REALLY wants.

We are so focused on selling what we need to sell and making our numbers that we fail to do the things that will help us truly deeply understand our customers.  We need to engage them in a robust dialogue.

These days it’s hard to get a meeting so when you do, you’d better be prepared to engage.   Ask questions that take the conversation to a deep level, and tell stories that provide context for and enlighten the customer about how to work with you. 

When I say engage, I mean meaningful engagement. Telling jokes and asking people about their families is not selling.  It’s a first step to building rapport.  The next step is to engage the economic buyer in a  meaningful conversation about business. Ask the right questions and relate stories that show them how you can provide value.   

Let’s talk about stories.

I’m just back from the sales conference for a Fortune 100 company where I talked about engaging the customer in a dialogue and increasing sales through stories. Share a story about a solution you created for another customer and watch their eyes light up.  If it is relevant, applicable, predictive and true, believe me they’ll be all ears.

Here’s the formula again:  R.A.P.T. stands for:

Relevant - this sounds something like the challenge I face

Applicable - it may not be the same business or industry but the issues apply to my business too

Predictive - I see how that solution worked and it would work for us, as well

True - this isn’t just sales talk; I believe it really happened.

Once you have a story that passes the R.A.P.T. test what do you do with it? 

OPEN THE DOOR WITH A STORY:

Start the meeting with a story that immediately engages the prospect and demonstrates what you might do for them.  The well told story will lead to comments about their own situation.  This gives you permissino to ask probing questions that a few minutes earlier might have felt intrusive. The story establishes your credibility, creates trust, and opens up a dialogue to real client issues.   

CLOSE THE SALE

Rounding the corner during a meeting that’s going well is a perfect time to tell a story.  If they’re interested but on the fence, a story is worth a thousand bullet points on features and benefits.  Once they hear the story, and believe it’s true, they’re remember the story, and remember you.  That’s the great differentiator.  Now you have them thinking not just “this might work,” to “I believe it will work.”   

For the first time ever, we’re going to offer our Storytelling for Sales Professionals workshop to the public in 2010.  Up to now it’s only been available to our corporate clients.  If you want to know when we’ve finalized the date and location please contact Jay Ryan, Marketing Director: jryan@bates-communications.com or 781 235-8239.

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