Tip 1. Get your people to think and act like business owners.
Business-owner-thinking (rather than employee thinking) has the ability to bring new life and energy to your company and focuses your people on the number one thing that really matters – your customers.
Start Tip 1 by getting your employees to answer these four questions:
What would I do if I was the owner of this business?
What would I expect to be done if I was a customer of this company?
Given the decision I’m about to make, what impact will this have on my customer’s desire to come back and buy from us again?
What can I personally do to ensure my customers recommend my company to their friends, family and business associates?
Tip 2. Invert the pyramid.
Understand that business is nothing to do with what youwant, but everything to do with what your customers want. In most companies, the leader is at the top of the pyramid or organisation chart.
Invert the pyramid and put your customers at the top, rather than you.
Make sure every action and decision your employees make is for the long term good and benefit of your customers.
Tip 3. Stop losing customers.
Research suggests that more than 60% of customers will leave your company because of a negative experience.
That would never happen if your employees thought like business owners and put the needs and desires of your customers first, instead of their own.
For Tip 3 get your employees to suggest ways to stop losing customers and prospects to your competitors.
Tip 4. Understand that business is about creating belief in the eyes of your customers.
You need to make your customers believe in you! If they don’t believe, they won’t buy!
Ask each employee to suggest five new ways to make your customers have deeper levels of belief and confidence in you.
Tip 5. Create happy ‘repeat’ customers.
You must turn your customers into passionate fans who tell the world about you, and do your marketing for you.
Get your employees to suggest five new ways they can turn unhappy customers into happy customers, and happy customers into passionate fans.
Tip 6. Get your employees to go the extra mile for your customers.
You need to thrill your customers, wow them, dazzle them and give them reasons to do your word-of-mouth marketing for you.
Get your employees to suggest five new ways they can go the extra mile for your customers.
Tip 7. Get your employees to come up with new business growth ideas.
Your employees’ ideas have value. Get them to start a journal and come up with at least one or two new business growth ideas each week.
Not all their ideas will be winners, but by getting them to think more entrepreneurially and by valuing their input, you will soon have a valuable treasure chest of new innovative and creative ideas which will help grow your business.
Tip 8. Turn each person in your company into a salesperson.
It is not only the salespeople in your company who are responsible for selling, everyone is!
Ask each person in your company to identify the core benefits of your products and services, and get them to explain EXACTLY why your customers would want to buy from you.
Tip 9. Create leaders at all levels in your company.
Great leaders fire up the passion in those around them. Passion is the fuel that will drive your company forward.
Give people additional leadership responsibility in your company, and bring out the best in them.
Tip 10. Have crystal clear goals that are programmed deep into the subconscious mind of your employees.
Get your people to write down the goals of your company as they currently understand them.
Take note of the level of consistency, or inconsistency in their responses.
Tip 11. Make your goals stretch goals, aim high.
Revisit your goals and now make them stretch goals. Be sure to re-communicate your new goals to your entire team.
Tip 12. Talk about cash, not profits.
The number one reason for business failure is running out of cash. It nearly happened to IBM in the 1990s and could happen to you too.
Use Tip 12 as an opportunity to make cost and efficiency savings in your company.
Tip 13. Create your own luck.
Luck is the crossroads of opportunity and preparation.
Get your people to sow at least one new seed of opportunity each day for a whole week.
Tip 14. Get everybody to do one thing each day that scares them.
Success isn’t found within your comfort zone, it’s found in your dis-comfort zone.
Ask your employees to do one thing each day that scares or challenges them.
Tip 15. Create a mentorship scheme.
Great entrepreneurs have coaches and mentors. Start a mentorship scheme for Tip 15. Rather than senior people mentoring junior people, consider reversing this.
Have the younger members of your team mentor more senior people in what is happening with technology, new media or with people of their age.
Tip 16. Create a mastermind club.
The result which comes from people working together in harmony on a given project can be extraordinary. Create various mastermind clubs, each with about five members.
Task each club to revisit some of the questions we have examined so far, and see if they can come up with even more creative and profitable ideas.
Tip 17. Celebrate success.
This does not have to be expensive, but you should get your employees to suggest ways to celebrate their achievements in this training programme so far.
Keep these ideas to hand and celebrate future successesthroughout the year.
Tip 18. Embrace failure.
It’s often said that if you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough. Failure gives you wisdom and judgement and allows you to take larger calculated risks.
Ask your employees to revisit some of their recent failures and get them to suggest what they have learnt from them, what they would do differently next time and what new opportunities came out of their set backs.
Tip 19. Turn your people into product experts.
Make sure your people know your products inside out and the benefits they offer. The more your employees know about what you sell, the more confidence they can pass on to your prospects and customers.
Ask your employees to choose just one or two of your products, and learn them inside out. Your customers should never know more than your employees!
Tip 20. Get your people to know your customers, market and industry inside out.
The more you know about your customers, the more you can adapt and respond to their changing needs. Get your employees to focus in on your customers, market and industry.
Ask them to learn about your competitors and where your company fits within your overall industry sector.
Tip 21. Develop your employees’ public speaking skills.
Great entrepreneurs are great public speakers. Public speaking develops confidence that teams and customers will pick up on. It forces you to know your subject.
Most business owners have to speak publicly at some time.
Invite your employees to give a presentation to five of your colleagues on what they have learnt from these tips.
Tip 22. Get your people out there networking!
Great business owners are great networkers. Encourage your employees to network with other people in your industry.
This may require them to attend an industry specific event, or attend a local business networking event.
Tip 23. Get your people to take outside leadership positions in your industry.
Entrepreneurs and business owners are typically active in numerous trade associations, or take leadership positions in the community.
Involvement in these clubs and associations introduces them to new ideas and different ways of thinking.
Encourage your employees to participate in at least one community activity – and get them to identify at least one new business growth idea as a result of this.
Tip 24. Never lose sight of the fact that it is your customers who pay your salary.
Ask your employees to calculate their salary (with bonuses, pensions, benefits, etc) as a proportion of an average customer sale.
This will clearly demonstrate the connection between salary and revenue from customers.
Tip 25. Get your people to read books and develop themselves.
Entrepreneurs are great readers of biographies and business books. It creates an inquisitive and curious mind, and is the fastest way to personal success.
Encourage your employees to read one personal development book (such as How to Win Friends and Influence People, or Business Upgrade by the author of this book!).
Tip 26. Get rid of negative energy in your company.
Only positive people with positive energy will grow your company and create results, negative energy will bring your company to its knees.
A bad attitude is like a virus – and if you have people in your organisation who have the wrong attitude and don’t believe in your products and services, it is your duty to tackle them before it affects the performance of your company.
Use Tip 26 to review the attitude of the people taking part in this training course.
Tip 27. Get the right people in the right places (and get rid of the wrong people).
Use Tip 27 to review whether you have the right people in the right places. If you don’t, change them!
Tip 28. Align the needs and goals of your staff, with the goals of your company.
Your staff must want to come to work each day because they are motivated and love their work, not just because they want to pay their bills.
If they are motivated and love their work, they will demonstrate greater levels of passion, innovation, creativity, customer care and, as a result, generate greater revenues and profits.
Get each member of your staff to write down their own personal goals and explain how they are aligned with the wider goals of your company.
Tip 29. Know your staff.
Recognise that your staff are human and have their own needs, desires, goals and ambitions. Talk to them. The more you know about your people, the more you can motivate them to work harder.
For Tip 29, have a one-on-one review meeting with each member of staff in this training programme.
Tip 30. Keep good staff.
Reward them, treat them well. It is expensive to lose good staff.
Just as you want to maximise the lifetime value of a customer, you also want to maximise the lifetime value of your best staff.
You have invested so much time in developing them, you do not want to let them go, especially your superstars. Consider now what you can do to keep your staff.
Take the advice of your employees here.
Tip 31. Retrain your staff regularly.
Your employees need to be the highest trained, most knowledgeable and professional people in your industry. People like being offered training, it makes them feel important and valued.
Find out what additional training your employees feel they need to perform their work at a higher level.
Now ask them how they can get that training for free (or nearly free)! This will require them to be creative and innovative — and possibly read a number of books on their desired area.
Tip 32. Give people authority and make them own their job.
When your employees feel ownership, they will go the extra mile and feel pride in their work.
Get your people to explain the changes they would make to their job if they were the CEO of your company for a day. This will highlight beneficial changes.
Tip 33. Recognise and praise your staff.
How do you feel when somebody says well done and gives you praise? This also means that when something is done wrong, it can be more powerful when harder feedback is given.
Encourage your employees to thank and praise their fellow colleagues for the contribution they make to each other’s success.
Tip 34. Create the right environment to create outstanding results.
This includes giving people the right tools for the job, the right training and the right conditions to achieve.
Ask your employees to identify ‘environment’ changes they feel would allow them to perform at a higher level — and would pay for themselves through added revenues or reduced costs.
Tip 35. Recognise motivation is an ongoing challenge.
Keeping people motivated towards the goals of the company is an ongoing challenge.
Use Tip 35 to re-communicate the goals of your company, and where you are as a company against your goals.
Tip 36. Communicate with your staff.
You want to create belief in your team, and that is done through communication. Lack of communication creates doubt, fears and apprehension.
Use Tip 36 to find out from your employees what additional information they would like to hear from management that would help them do their job better, or motivate them to new levels of performance.
Tip 37. Create an environment of positive expectancy (and eliminate doubt).
Success is a question of belief. If you expect to achieve outstanding results you will; if you don’t you won’t.
Brain storm with your staff new ‘man on the moon goals’ and impossible dreams.
Find a new ambition that everybody believes in, and go for it.
Tip 38. Take action and eliminate procrastination.
Nothing gets done without action.
Get your people to identify five jobs that they have been putting off due to procrastination, and get them to take immediate action to do them.
Tip 39. Eliminate complacency.
There is no room for complacency and taking your customers for granted, which all too many companies do.
Ask your people to identify five areas where they think your business has become complacent, or takes your customers for granted.
Take immediate action to fix these areas.
Tip 40. Create a fun environment.
When your people have fun at work, they will create high levels of performance and results.
Find out from your staff how they would like to make work more fun than fun!
Tip 41. Create a spirit of team harmony.
A team which sticks together and works for each other wins.
Ask your staff to suggest ways to create a stronger level of team harmony. Give a few of these ideas a go.
Tip 42. Be persistent and never give up.
Persistence requires you to think differently, be creative and flexible. It requires you to never accept no for an answer.
Ask your staff to identify areas in their work where they have given up too easily.
Get them to suggest what they would do differently next time when faced with the same challenge.
Tip 43. Work hard and have self-discipline.
Success comes from hard work, not just smart work.
Support your people to help them improve their effort level by an extra 20%. Get them to have their most productive week ever, simply by working harder.
Tip 44. Hustle. Have urgency.
There is a famous saying that good things come to those who wait. What is often left off in that saying is that what is left ‘is from those who hustle’.
Encourage your people to hustle and have urgency.
Take note of the difference this brings to your results.
Tip 45. Value time.
Time is the most precious resource we have. Great entrepreneurs are 100% respectful of time and do not waste a minute.
Ask your employees to identify ways that they can improve their efficiency and time management, and create an extra couple of hours a week for themselves.
Get them to use this time on training and development.
Tip 46. Have total honesty, integrity, respect and trust — with yourself and others.
Creating a lasting business with repeatable revenue fromyour clients requires a backbone of honesty, integrity, respect and trust.
Get your employees to write down the values which they hold themselves and their colleagues accountable to.
Tip 47. Create wallet sized cards for your employees to carry around with your goals and values on them.
Send the cards out to all your employees.
Tip 48. Think long-term.
Chasing short term, quick-win revenue often comes at the expense of long-term growth.
Stock market listed companies who focus just on quarter to quarter revenue sooner or later stumble. Think long-term and long-term relationships with happy customers.
Ask your employees to identify five instances where a decision has been made for short term gain at the expense of the long term-growth of your company.
Tip 49. Have only one standard — excellence.
Anything less will never do.
Ask each employee to suggest several areas in your company which do not measure up to the high standard of excellence.
Take these suggestions and fix them.
Tip 50. Develop an entrepreneurial attitude in your company.
All companies were once started by an entrepreneur, but with time that spirit gets lost, and complacency and taking customers for granted creeps in. Passion is replaced with processes.
Get each employee to identify five processes which need topping up with passion!
Tip 51. Do it for the love of it. Not just for the money.
Entrepreneurs are driven by their passion for their products and services. Money only comes by giving customers what they want, and understanding it is all about your customer.
Find out what your employees personally love doing, and ask them how they could bring more passion to their work.
Tip 52. Recognise that the success of your company is in your hands.
You and your people have total responsibility for the success of your company.
One business owner recently said to me, “Is it really my responsibility to train and develop my people?” “Yes! Of course,” I said, “if you want to reach the top and enjoy the rewards that are due to you!”
Ask every member of your team to identify the missing elements which are stopping your company from becoming the dominant player in your market.
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