Archive for October, 2008

What are you afraid of?

Oct 31, 2008 in Customer Loyalty, Motivation

By Jim Cathcart

Today is Halloween, so what scares you?
The economy, the climate, the extremists with weapons, the news?

Tonight people will be dressing in crazy and spooky attire and posing the eternal question:
“Trick or Treat?”
Originally that was a Halloween evening request for a bribe to keep “goblins” from doing some mischief. Today I think it’s still being asked in far too many ways apart from this holiday. We are being tricked too often.
There are new products and special offers that don’t live up to their promise. Vendors are advertising that they truly care about their customers but we find that they treat us like just another revenue carrier, a person bearing money, instead of a client.
As Michael Crichton, the author and screenwriter said not long ago, our biggest challenge is in determining who and what we can trust.

When anyone can put together an impressive video promo, or a fancy press kit with great graphics. When even the crooks know how to look credible and sound trustworthy, who do we trust?
Internet scams, once so transparent as to be laughable, are becoming quite convincing. Most of us know better than to send seed money to Nigeria so that some political refugee can share their millions with us, but it’s hard to resist a convincing request for our private data when it comes from a known company with logo, copyright, and wording just like the real thing.

In this environment we all become skeptical. We’ve long ago learned not to trust what politicians promise us during the campaigns. We’ve seen decades of infomercials offering the world’s greatest hidden discovery for only $19.95…but wait! There’s more! Act now and get two of the items plus the special bonus and we will pay the shipping! For the next 100 callers we will….(promise you the Moon).

Trust is and will be the primary commercial currency of this decade. We must not only offer to be trustworthy, we must scrupulously live up to it. We must over-deliver on our promises and guard our reputations as fervently as we guard our money. We’ve got to learn once again how to be a best friend to our customers and become loyal to them long before we expect them to be loyal to us.
So, let’s all pledge to stop scaring people, and start earning their trust.

Happy Halloween,
Jim Cathcart

For the latest ebook version in the Relationship Selling Series: click this link “Customer Loyalty“

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Rethinking: 10 Strategies for a Challenging Era

Oct 20, 2008 in Motivation, Sales Training, challenging times

By Jim Cathcart

In October of 2008 our markets and institutions experienced a permanent shift. That’s twice now since the Millennium that the game has changed. On September 11, 2001 I was shocked into the awareness that not only had we experienced a tragedy of epic proportions, we had also experienced a permanent shift in our daily life and business patterns. Never again could we trust at the level we had trusted before. That was true for our military and domestic defenses and now we find it true for our economy.

Now is a time for us to rethink virtually everything.
We have entered a challenging era, one in which previous assumptions about what was safe and what would work are no longer reliable. We must increase our scrutiny of our businesses and our lives before some government agency does it for/to us.

Here are 10 areas worth re-examining:

The value we deliver to our customers. What do they really get by doing business with us? Is the cost worth the outlay or can we make it more valuable to them without unduly increasing our cost of delivery? How can we increase their satisfaction right now? I call this “Up-Serving”, looking for ways to be of more service without more cost.
The customers and markets we are pursuing. Is there another group or subgroup that could benefit from and afford our offerings? Are we seeking the optimum consumers of our services? Can we offer more or different products/services to our existing customers? Should we be pursuing customers who were never on our radar before?
The safety of working here. Is this a place where workers can relax in the assurance that we are looking out for them as well as our owners? Do we seek ways to show our people how much we value them? Do they truly know that they are appreciated? Do we listen to them, really? Do we protect them?
The margin of profit from each of our endeavors. Are we truly spending $100 time on $100 activities or do we often expend prime time on low payoffs? Let’s become more efficient and more effective simultaneously.
The attitude we show day to day. People who work with us and buy from us are acutely aware of our own fear or confidence. We need to be intentionally and consciously building optimism and inspiring innovation. The only posture to operate in during challenges is Proactive & Positive. We need to be watching for ideas and opportunities on every front, especially from our own workforce.
Sales efforts from every level. Nobody is exempt from sales efforts unless they plan to leave the organization. At times like this we need every clerk, assistant, technician, accountant, machine operator, driver, courier and cook to be “Thinking Sales.” How and where can we see an opportunity to help someone else at a profit? All of us circulate in the world and become de facto ambassadors for the company. That means we are walking sales reps even though we may never make a sales presentation, nor ask anyone to buy. Let’s train everyone to recognize sales opportunities and show them how to pass along the leads for our best responses. Incentives will help too.
Our own work patterns. What worked last year may not work next year. We may have to begin doing some things we thought we had outgrown. It may be that we will need to re-ignite some old practices in order to generate new business. What time each day does your truly productive work begin? What do you regularly spend time on that has a low payoff value? Where is the highest and best use of your time?
In what ways are we “spoiled”? Have you grown accustomed to certain luxuries or freedoms on the job that no longer make sense? What items that were once goals & dreams have you lately come to consider as entitlements? Lean and mean is the need right now. Roll up your sleeves more often and do what must be done.
Our primary relationships. Everything we do is done through others on some level. When we change the nature or mix of whom we spend our time with, we also change our results. Give some strong consideration to who you’d benefit from associating with and who might be holding you back. Cut back on the limiting relationships and increase the high payoff ones. (See my other posts about Relationship Intelligence).
Our expenditures. This is where most organizations begin their reactions to challenges. But most organizations don’t do very well. Those who thrive in tough times are the ones who realize that nobody ever saved their way to more income. You don’t increase sales by cutting expenses, you do it by increasing the payoff from each expenditure. Look for ways to increase high payoff expenses and eliminate low payoff expenses. Ask what items and efforts could be re-purposed toward sales.

The biggest challenge in meeting tough times is MINDSET.

As FDR said, “the greatest thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Mindset is the beginning point for all behavior. We must cultivate an abundance mentality: there is opportunity out there and we will find it. We don’t have to fear our competition, we simply need to value and serve our customers. We needn’t worry about customer’s being loyal to us, we will begin by being more loyal to them.

The second challenge is SKILLSETS. We must assure that everyone obtains the skills they need in order to:

increase sales,
improve service,
identify opportunities,
generate innovative solutions and
sustain optimism.

You don’t just become better by deciding to. You must have the training, information and inspiration to do so.

The third challenge is SYSTEMS. We must systematize processes and set standards that cultivate the right habits for success.

When we do these things, challenge will be our friend. Let me know how we can help you communicate these messages, train people in these skills and refine the systems needed to make success a habit, even in tough times.

Jim Cathcart

www.cathcart.com

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Cathcart Institute, inc. has a new logo

Oct 18, 2008 in Coaching, Motivation

By Jim Cathcart

A New logo for a New Era of Growth and A New Theme for a Challenging World.

Our primary business is and always has been “Helping People Grow”. That was the slogan I adopted in 1976 when I founded the institute. The emphasis of our work is helping people to tap more of their potential and showing them their opportunities for growth.

Our new theme/slogan is “Intelligent Motivation for a Challenging World.”

The new logo uses our Nature Green and Earth Brown colors along with our icon, The Acorn.
And it incorporates a new element, a person.
In a configuration that implies a C and an i, it shows a person emerging from the acorn, arms spread, head up and charging enthusiastically into the future. Since the Acorn is a universal symbol for Nature and Potential, this takes that image one step further and highlights the result of our work rather than just the focus of it.

Our fields of work are still:

Motivation; through speeches, seminars, books and recordings, plus

Strategy; through consulting, coaching and collaboration, and

Training; for sales, leadership, and communication.
We welcome your comments and observations about the new logo and your inquiries as to how we might help you grow your company, your people or your own potential.

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Dress for the position you want

Oct 11, 2008 in Motivation

By Jim Cathcart

Last week I was in Portland, Oregon for a speaking engagement at the Hilton Portland. At the end of my speech a woman walked up to me and said, “I was in your audience back in the 1980s, in Chicago I think, and something you said that day made a big difference in my life.” I smiled and asked what I had said.
She said, “You told us to dress for the position we want rather than for the position we were in. I followed your advice and it really paid off for me. I still follow that advice and share it with others.”

What an inspiring comment! It warmed my heart to hear that an idea I had shared was still paying dividends for the audience.
The essence of my message back in Chicago was: people judge us by our appearance as well as our behavior and even though we don’t necessarily look like we truly are, our appearance is our choice. We have chosen a particular look because it makes us feel comfortable or expresses something we feel.

The trouble is, we often don’t choose our “look” very intelligently. I believe that we could all benefit by dressing and grooming ourselves as if we were already in the next position we aspire to reach. If you are a manager, dress like an executive. If you are a new sales person dress like a veteran sales leader. You get the idea.

Dress for Success was the title of a book by John T. Molloy, published in the 1970s. It was one of many that proved the value of choosing to carry yourself, dress yourself and conduct yourself as the person you intend to be instead of simply the person you currently are.

Remember my “Daily Question” from my book, The Acorn Principle:

In the Spirit of Growth,
Jim Cathcart

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