GoHuman Blog

I became disgusted with Forbes Magazine, even before blogging about their cover story on Monsanto as company of the year.  Now they’ve done it again.  This blog was drafted for publication today before Forbes landed in my mailbox yesterday with Wells Fargo Bank (WFB) on the cover as “The Bank that Works”.  Well, they don’t work for me!

The past few weeks I’ve been gearing up (myself and those interested in reading my posts) to begin a wellness program I recently enrolled in, through a local chiropractor. I know, who knew a chiropractic office offered wellness programs? I’ve chalked it up to a basic business philosophy that many entrepreneur’s/organizations tend to lose sight of which is that they clearly understand how important it is to the success of their business to continuously find ways to add value to those they serve.

Last week marked my first visit to the office, which was the initial consultation and program review. The Dr. was definitely on a fact-finding mission and asked a multitude of questions ranging from current fitness regimen and eating habits, to why I chose “now” to take action.

Some of you may be wondering what (if any) purpose does it serve others, for me to track such a journey, through weekly blogging. What’s more, how or does it even relate to coaching? The good news is that the two are very much in alignment with one another and “no,” I’m not self absorbedJ.

Coaching is about commitment, accountability, taking action for the results we want and doing whatever is necessary, in order to get those results. Coaching is a structured relationship designed to help the person being coached to move forward, to reach the goals that they have set, and to reach their potential.

Those who remain hesitant, may then be asking “Why would someone who’s built a career for themselves that’s designed to lead others to realizing the untapped potential they have within, seek their own assistance of an outside source to get more fit, become healthier by adapting new eating habits, to live a longer and healthier life?” My response is simple and nonetheless, truthful. I understand and know the value of having a support system who’s in my corner, rooting for me every step of the way. I know the value of having someone to help hold me accountable and offer a different perspective when it’s difficult to see the forest through the trees. I know the value of having someone on your side who isn’t there to criticize, but rather offer their encouragement to continue moving forward, after not having reached a weekly goal. I also know (all too well) that in order to change the things that aren’t working or are missing from my daily diet/fitness routine, means that “I” must make the commitment and “I” must take the action required, to affect the change “I” want.

When multiple award winning actress (and dubbed as America’s Sweetheart) Sandra Bullock landed the lead role in The Blind Side, in order to really get into her character as the headstrong football mom Leigh Ann Tuohy, one of the first moves Bullock made was to hire dialect coach, Francie Brown. Bullock hired Brown to help her refine her southern-style accent and incidentally, she won best actress for her role in the movie.

How about one of the best golfers of all time Tiger Woods who, regardless of the personal challenges he’s endured these past few years, also works with a coach. The coach may change from time to time but nonetheless, he always has one. Why does someone with his talent, his skills and his record have a coach? Because he takes constructive feedback from another golfer who he could undoubtedly beat with some regularity, if he were to compete against him. Just imagine what it’s like to not only be the very best in the world at what you do, but to be humble enough to admit than you can always get better and don’t know it all.

My commitment to all of you is to post weekly progress updates, as my journey continues.

Developing a Marketing Plan will keep your marketing efforts focused, more effective and more cost effective.  Each business’s Marketing Plan should be unique to that business’s market, goals and competitive environment.  However, the most effective Marketing Plans will include a number of critical elements:

1. Value Proposition
Your value proposition, simply stated, tells your market why they should buy from you.  In other words:  What makes you the best option for them?  Are you less expensive than their other options?  Will they get better customer service?  Do you offer more for the money?  Are you a local business versus a national chain?, etc.   Your value proposition must be articulated in simple language that gives a clear picture of why your prospects should do business with you.

A good rule is to keep it to 25 words or less.  Here are some examples for a variety of businesses:

“We sell office supplies for less than any national chain.”

“Every bicycle we sell is backed by a 2 year end-to-end warranty.”

“We have the world’s largest selection of hard-to-find parts for every foreign car on the road.”

“We guarantee on-time arrival of our repair technicians or your repair is free.”

Saying “thank-you” to a family member, a friend, a co-worker, or someone you’ve only met once, can make a world of difference for them and you.

Letting someone know you’re grateful for something they’ve done or for just having been a part of your life through a simple thank-you, will bring new, positive light to their day. Gratitude projects a feeling of pure and positive energy. When we’re grateful, we feel thankful and appreciative. The more gratitude we feel, the more positive energy we experience in our lives.

It’s important to communicate to others that we’re grateful for their friendship, their love and their support. It allows them the opportunity to share in our positive energy and therefore, they experience feeling good, themselves. According to the law of attraction, the more gratitude we express to others the more appreciation we receive in return.

A few simple tips to use and ideas to consider when letting someone know you’re grateful for something are:

• Write a short note thanking the person for their friendship, a gesture, a gift or for being a sounding board, when you needed someone to just listen.
• Make a list of specific people you intend to write a thank-you note to who have, in one way or another, positively impacted your life.
• Commit to a set number of thank-you notes each day, week or month.
• Replace thank-you e-mails with handwritten notes. People appreciate your personal touch.
• Choose noteworthy situations. A thank-you note for a routine situation can weaken the message.
• Always direct a thank-you note to an individual, vs. an organization/group. If the situation involves multiple people, address the note to the senior person, asking them to pass along sincere appreciation to the others.
• Thank-you notes are a statement of appreciation from one person to another. Carefully double check grammar and the spelling of all names. There’s no quicker way to reduce your credibility and sincerity than to misspell names.

Companies who deliberately create a culture to work with systems and allow themselves to see the underlying system beneath everything create a wonderful mind-shift.

Every system is perfect for what it produces. Once your mind shifts to see the perfection of every system, you’re in a clear enough state to produce new systems that provide different results.

Even in situations when customers are upset, it can be said that a perfect system was used to anger the customer. It certainly doesn’t mean you have to like or tolerate the system that produced this particular result, in fact, applying this type of system thinking to anything you don’t like allows you to immediately correct it: “We have a perfect system for producing poor quality product, low margins, low productivity, high employee turnover,” and so on.

Declaring the existence of a system, allows you to avoid the habit of blaming other people for things that go wrong. Nothing can ever be improved or corrected that way. You’ll always get what you’ve designed a system to get and therefore, the solution to any ongoing problem is to design a new system. This is referred to as “systems thinking,” which is a higher order of thinking than we normally use. Once the mind shifts to systems, everything begins to change for the better.

Many companies have ongoing problems with politics, ego and insecurity issues of certain managers. Such companies assume they’re always going to have these issues and chalk it up to the price of working with people!  Not true. One company, Microchip, proclaims that politics, ego and arrogance are “NOT ALLOWED.”  How so? Because they deliberately created the culture they wanted. When it’s crystal clear that something isn’t allowed, people just don’t do it.

Before compromising who you are, your integrity or the service you offer to customers by discounting your fee, in order to give them a “deal,” ask yourself one question: “Is my intent to serve or please my customers?” If it’s serving-that means you have something (product or service) they want and they see the benefits of how it can add value to them/their business. If your response implies you’re more concerned with whether or not the customer is pleased, that’s as good as saying you’ll lower your price, your morals, the belief you have in yourself and the product or service you offer, just to get “a sale.” That’s not serving to you or your customers.

They’ve already won, if you have a great service. You don’t have to add a new win for them on top of that win. If what you have is valuable, they’ve already won.  They’re coming in with a win; you don’t have to add to that. You need to stand proud and allow yourself to win, too, because they’ve already won because they’re doing business with you.

If who you are is great, they have already won by sitting down with you. You don’t have to add to their win by cutting some financial deal with them, and by helping them out of money mismanagement. If you’re in a negotiation for any contracted services, you don’t have to keep pushing money over to the other side of the table to help them out, and then cover it with thinking you’re trying to go for a “win-win.”

In many cases “win-win” can actually be defined as “I bailed out and gave them a deal because I really needed the business.” People do business with people they know, they like and they trust.  If they know you, like you and trust you, then they trust you are selling them exactly what they want and more.

One critical point to remember when developing a customer base is to, be selective in your choices.  First, determine what kind of customer “you” want to do business with.

One option is to do business with those who are mostly concerned about price and less about value/product/service. These types of customers are typically perceived as “high maintenance-low profit”, which means the minute they find a better price or think they’re paying too much, they’ll be looking for a better deal, someplace else.

Another option (preferred by most) is to do business with those who understand the true value and quality of the service and or product offered. These are the same customers who are willing to pay extra because of the “added-value” they know they’re getting and can trust. They want you to stay in business and they also understand you need to be profitable, in order to do so.

To simplify, the quality of your business is directly related to the quality of your customer

GoHuman supports local businesses and communities through a unique integrated approach to distributed ownership and responsibility. One of the ways we help is by bringing together like-minded companies who are working to achieve the same goals in their communities.

The Seattle Umbrella is Seattle’s only “Local Certification” service. Committed to promoting a sustainable and environmentally friendly local community in Seattle. Once your business is certified local, The Seattle Umbrella is your source for promotion to a highly targeted audience of people who genuinely want to support local business in Seattle.

Use their logo to gain recognition as a local business, as a marketing point, and as a statement that you support your community. Local businesses are the backbone of our community, and they are working to support practices that keep Seattle green, diverse, and sustainable.

Respond by Friday, June 4, and receive a 20% discount on your Seattle Umbrella membership and 6 months free basic subscription to GoHuman.com.

When I was Publisher of some Manufacturing Management magazines, a group that represented Industrial Distributors asked me to survey our readers — their customers & prospects — what they valued most, aside from product-related attributes such as accuracy and reliability. About 15 items were listed.

To most everyone’s surprise, the customers and prospects ranked “Prompt Response to Needs & Requests” a very close second, only to “Price” which almost always comes out first. What came in #3 wasn’t even close.

“Prompt Response” costs you almost nothing and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do it. It’s not only a great way to improve sales, it’s also a very inexpensive way to gain goodwill.

We’re excited to announce a unique partnership with Red Spot Marketing, which provides marketing planning, consulting and management services to small and medium sized businesses across North America.

Join GoHuman for free today and you’ll get more exclusive marketing help for your business! Already a GoHuman member? The just drop us a line.

The first 10 members to respond receive: 12 months of $9 GoHuman.com subscription level ($1,080 total value!)

AND everyone who responds by April 15 receives: 6 months of $5 GoHuman.com subscription level ($30 value each) and Red Spot’s Free Marketing Planning Start Bundle that includes:

• Marketing Plan Template
• Marketing Plan Sample
• Marketing Plan Budget Spreadsheet

This set of templates and guides retails for $99 but is free for GoHuman members. It includes everything you need to get a marketing plan and monthly budget put together. This is the most important part of the marketing process.

Red Spot is partnering with GoHuman to gain more exposure to small and medium sized businesses within the GoHuman network.

As the GoHuman community grows, Red Spot Marketing will be bringing a number of exclusive offers to our members designed to help them implement better marketing practices and grow their business by marketing outside of GoHuman and learning how to get the most from their GoHuman experience.

Red Spot has ten full time marketing management consultants plus a support network of marketing back office staff to help manage the execution of their 100 plus clients’ marketing.

Focused on affordable integrated marketing designed to generate new leads for their clients, Red Spot Marketing uses a variety of awareness and lead generation marketing both online and offline to generate new leads for clients every month.

Join GoHuman for free today to get started!