If you execute, you can do anything. When a company has a clear mission, and people know how their individual mission fits into the big picture, everyone paddles in the
same direction. —Stephen Cooper

The biggest influence on my ability to execute has been Stephen Covey’s, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It provided me a personal method to perform standard work. A later program developed by Franklin Covey was the The 4 Disciplines of Execution which I still listen to for reinforcement but without the context of the training, I would not necessarily recommend it. The actually four disciplines serve as a great guideline for execution:

1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Human beings are wired to do only one thing at a time with excellence. The more we narrow our focus, the greater chance of achieving our goals with excellence.
2. Create a Compelling Scoreboard: People play differently when they’re keeping score.
3. Translate Lofty Goals into Specific Actions: To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before, you need to start doing things you’ve never done before. • Using an entrepreneurial
4. Hold Each Other Accountable-All of the Time: Knowing others are counting on you raises your level of commitment.

These disciplines are what guides my own work and has allowed me to guide sales and marketing teams into higher levels of performance.

As I started my consulting path a few years back, I became a facilitator for the Get Clients Now – 28 Day Program. I always struggled with it somewhat because of the language used, appetizers, desserts, etc. but for the most part it provided a simple and concise action plan for assembling Wildly Important into Specific Actions into a Compelling Scoreboard (The Action Worksheet). When used with teams, it provides an excellent format for providing you a line of sight in daily stand-ups and weekly meetings. It was easily modified for individuals and organizations in Google docs for the teams that I was working with. As we all know, most sales efforts fall short in their ability to follow up which is at the core of the Get Clients Now Program. This outline became the core of standard work for my training programs.

Follow-through is the cornerstone of execution, and every leader who’s good at executing follows through religiously. Following through ensures that people are doing the things they committed to do. – Larry Bossidy

In my previous project management experience, I had found it was a matter of available resources that was the biggest inhibitor to actual execution. In most instances, thinking from a manufacturing or using GCN terminology a cook’s perspective, it was a missing tool or ingredient. When some has all the tools and/or material to do the job, they usually get the job done efficiently and at a high quality level. It holds true for sales and marketing. However, it always seemed to me that many action steps were started without the necessary resources available. The secret to what we needed to document in sales and marketing’s standard work was the needed resources to complete the action step and accept no workarounds.

In Scott Belsky’s (founder of Behance) book, Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality, he uses an approach called The Action Method. which has become my management planner of choice. It is extremely simple and highly intuitive for a single person and/or team. I use the paper, online and the app for my iPhone all in combination with very little of redundant work. What the Action Planner does is creates a systems that emphasizes action steps and having the supporting resources available. This is the essence of standard work for the Lean Engagement Team. Making the resources you are utilizing and highlighting what you are missing to the rest of the team, Team Coordinator and Value Stream Manager is the single most important part of the Daily Standup and Weekly Tactical. It allows work to flow.

I have found that most organizations prefer to customize and many still use Google Docs as the reporting method of choice. However, the point is not what tool you use. The point is mastering it so it takes little effort to make your work visible to the rest of the team. This line of sight is what makes teamwork possible. Both of these methods require little if any experience and more importantly can be completed quickly.

The typical daily stand-up goes like this:

1. State the action item and report did you do it: yes or no
2. If not, what stopped you? Was a resource missing?
3. What I am going to do today. Am I missing any resources? Who can help (if so, meet afterwards)?

The biggest problem I have had in these daily standups is that the managers have a tendency to turn them into longer sessions. They want to manage. The idea behind a daily standup is for tactical purposes. It is meant to enable team members to carry out their actions; nothing more, nothing less. Managers if they are participating should be enablers of the actions or in Lean terms the role of servant leadership.

P.S. The Action Planner resembles a simplified version of Kanban system such as the one offered by Lean Kit Kanban (my favorite online Kanban system).

Related Information
Even Seinfeld used Standard Work
Successful Lean teams are iTeams
The SDCA Cycle Description for a Lean Engagement Team
Evolutionary Change thru Kanban

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Why is it that some consultants, coaches, and other independent professionals have all
the business they need, while others struggle by with only a few clients? Is there a hidden
secret no one is telling you?

The answer may be simpler than you think. In this special report, you will discover three
things you may be doing now that can actually prevent you from getting clients, how the
Persistence Effect can liberate your marketing, and one simple habit you can begin today
that may bring you all the clients you will ever need.

I’ve been working with self-employed professionals like you since 1992, helping my
clients, students, and readers to make more money with less effort, and teaching them
how to earn a better living doing what they love. Please take a few moments now to read
these five simple ideas that can change your marketing forever.

–C.J. Hayden, Author of Get Clients NOW!

Five Secrets of Finding Clients

1. Choose a set of simple, effective things to do and do them consistently: The real key to successful marketing is picking just a few simple, effective things to do and then doing those things consistently. This is how you can build your business more quickly by doing less.

2. Rely on the Persistence Effect, not on magic: When you begin to move purposefully in a specific direction, energy is created and things begin to happen. There is an interesting phenomenon that occurs when you get serious about marketing in a focused, consistent way. You begin to get results in unexpected places.

3. Choose a niche and become known for it: Returning to our metaphor of the water barrel, not having a niche is like running all over town to different water faucets instead of coming back to the same one each time. Even if you do have a bucket instead of a drinking glass, it’s inefficient. And worse, you might not even be able to find the faucets in all those unfamiliar places.

4. Market the results of your work, not the process you use: If you were in my profession of business coaching, and someone asked you, “What is coaching?” you would be unlikely to enroll a client by saying, “We meet by phone for half an hour each week and talk about your goals.” That’s just the process – where’s the value?

5. Ask the people you already know for help: If you always remember to tell everyone you know what you are doing and ask for their help, that one simple habit may bring you all the clients you need. Go through your address book, checkbook, holiday card list, club roster, and alumni directory, and count up how many people you know that aren’t yet aware of your business.

Download this report by C.J. Hayden.

This is not rocket science but what stops you. Do you want to learn how:

• Choose the right tactics for your situation & personality.
• Diagnose exactly what is missing in your marketing.
• Learn what it takes to tie online to offline messages together.
• Hands-on approaches for replacing unproductive cold calling, blasting with the power of true relationship marketing.
• And much, much more!

If you want to learn how the Get Clients Now program may work for you, please
review our latest program:

Workshop – Special Offer

Related Information:
Achieving Expert Status
Marketing your Black Belt

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• How to Network at Professional Associations – Article by Donna Feldman
  An often overlooked place to network and find referral partners is professional associations. These associations serve people working in a particular industry or profession and can provide you with many resources, as well as valuable connections. You may not think that networking within your profession will provide any client leads, but you’d be surprised! Colleagues refer to others in their field for a variety of reasons — it could be an issue of scheduling, timing, differing specialties, or specific expertise.
• Future of the Coaching Business – Audio by C.J. Hayden
  C.J. Hayden is interviewed by Milana Leshinsky on the future of coaching as a business and what coaches need to do to succeed. Including: why marketing "coaching" is not the best way to attract clients, the critical difference between marketing classes or products and marketing yourself as a coach, and essential elements of marketing and sales to land coaching clients.
• To Get More Clients, Let Your Light Shine – Article by C.J. Hayden
  "I think I’m really good at what I do," declares technical writer June, "but I don’t ever seem to get a chance to show people." June is experienced, highly-skilled, and has written dozens of procedure manuals and other how-to guides throughout her career. But she isn’t getting enough work to earn a living as a freelancer.
• Success Story Template – Tool/Example by C.J. Hayden
  A helpful tool for presenting your services to prospective clients is a repertoire of success stories about the results your clients get from your work. Here’s a template and example for composing some success stories of your own.
• What Are You Choosing? – Article by Grace Durfee
  Is it human nature to keep making the same choices over and over again? Perhaps with the wisdom collected over years of experience we weed out what doesn’t appeal to us and choose to stick to what we know works. There’s comfort and safety in routine and the familiar. But boxing ourselves into a limited repertoire may begin to wear thin. If boredom and frustration set in because one day looks exactly like the next, it could be time to broaden your horizons and investigate new options.

Check out how you can get this resource Free!

This link is the only thing stopping you from getting more clients!

Offer Ends Friday!

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This Program works on developing the top of your funnel!

The bottom line is that if you want immediate business you must institute an action plan to maximizing the creation and leveraging of your touch-points with prospects and customers. The truth of the matter is that the principles that are contained in this program are the same basic principles that is still make marketing successful today. Some of the tools have changed but that is covered rather easily in the session. The basic ideas are

1. Planning out a program that you can implement immediately.
2. Recognize Short-term improvements needed and develop actions to correct.
3. Review Long-term improvements and develop actions to correct.
4. Simplifying (not just automating) what works and ridding yourself of what doesn’t work.

1. Get Clients Now Book
2. The GCN Six-Month Marketing Guide
3. Membership to the GCN Answer Center for 1 year
4. Bonus- Lean Marketing House Book

You must supply a valid email for these  to be sent.

Business901 October 10th G.C.N. Program

This link is the only thing stopping you from getting more clients!

Offer Ends Friday!

These are timeless principles that can be utilized over and over again.

Related Information:
Achieving Expert Status
Marketing your Black Belt

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New in the Answer Center Here are this month’s new additions to the Get Clients Now Answer Center. (You need to have a password to log in.) Next Business901 GCN Program starts May 16th

• How to Work Your Network – Article by Donna Feldman
  Browse the Internet, read the newspaper, or thumb through a magazine, and you’re bound to see an article advising you to use your network to help you grow your business. But how exactly do you do that?
• Selling to the Bottom Line – Article by C.J. Hayden
  If you’ve ever wondered why more people don’t respond to your sales attempts and marketing messages, the first question to ask may be — are you selling something that people are willing to spend money on?
• Sample Speaking Topic and Bio – Tool by C.J. Hayden
  In order to get booked as a speaker, an essential tool is a one-page description of your speaking topic, and a capsule bio describing your expertise. The example below will give you a model to follow.
• Three Ways to Jump Start Your Marketing – Article by C.J. Hayden
  We’re an impatient society these days. The blazing speed of transmission we experience daily for news and communications has raised our expectations for how fast everything should happen. So when someone tells us our marketing will take time to pay off, we don’t have a lot of patience for it.

If you would like to join: Get Clients Now Answer Center.

Find out more about Get Clients Now!

Related Information:
Value is a Relative Concept
Get Clients NOW™
Pull: The Pull in Lean Marketing
Value Stream Marketing and the Indirect Marketing Concept
Lean Marketing Creates Knowledge for the Customer

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Marketing your Black Belt is a 28-day program starting May 6th. Marketing your Black Belt is based specifically on addressing these issues: Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Customer Retention and Communication & Collaboration. Specifically designed for Quality consultants.

Get Clients NOW – 28 Day Program: Program starting on the Monday, April 18th: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (GMT-0500).Program Structure and Agenda: During the first three sessions you will receive all the tools and training needed to design your individual 28-day marketing action plan. Specifically Designed for the Professional Consultant.

Value Stream Marketing: is a 28-day program starting Thursday, May 12th, from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (ET). We want our participants to learn how to utilize a Sales and Marketing Value Stream implement through the use of a Marketing Kanban. Specifically Designed for Organizations.

Limited Amounts of Attendees.

How many times has a good idea failed because of a poor plan or execution? For start-ups and established organizations alike, Business901 provides effective but easy to use methodologies. They are flexible enough to allow you to apply your own ideas, while giving you guidance before, during and after. We will provide practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that can have immediate impact on the success of your organization.

P.S. 90 Day Program – ask for details about our Achieving Expert Status Program

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• How Easy Can Marketing Be? – Article by C.J. Hayden
  I often speak to groups of independent professionals about what works and what doesn’t in marketing. We talk about the effectiveness of active, relationship-oriented strategies like networking, building referral partnerships, public speaking to groups of potential clients, and following up persistently with interested prospects.
• Is Your “No” Button Working? – Article by Joan Friedlander
  For years, I heard that if you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it. Implication: busy people are successful. I’m sure some people still subscribe to this philosophy. I don’t any more, especially when it comes to successful business ownership.
• Are You Marketing the Right Stuff? – Article by C.J. Hayden
  Jan is a graphic designer who was always struggling to find good clients. “I could find plenty of people who needed my services,” she recalls, “but they thought my rates were too high. I either ended up agreeing to work for less, or they found someone else.”
• Networking Offline with Your Online Connections – Article by Donna Feldman
  A new client who is starting a business mentioned that while she was putting a lot of time and effort into her online marketing and networking, she had yet to see any tangible results (i.e. clients). She asked if she needed to add some offline activities, such as attending networking events or meeting with people one-on-one.

If you would like to join: Get Clients Now Answer Center.

Find out more about Get Clients Now!

Related Posts:
Make my Day, Sign up for a November 28 Day Program
Value is a Relative Concept
Get Clients NOW™

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Marketing your Black Belt is a 28-day program starting November 5th. Marketing your Black Belt is based specifically on addressing these issues: Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Customer Retention and Communication & Collaboration. Specifically designed for Quality consultants.

Get Clients NOW – 28 Day Program: Program starting on first Monday of every month: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (GMT-0500).Program Structure and Agenda: During the first three sessions you will receive all the tools and training needed to design your individual 28-day marketing action plan. The listing above is the starting date for the program. You have signed up to start on that Monday and for the following 28 days.

Value Stream Marketing: is a 28-day program starting Thursday, November 11th, 2010 from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (ET). We want our participants to learn how to utilize a Sales and Marketing Value Stream implement through the use of a Marketing Kanban.  Implementing Value Stream Marketing is a complete 28-day program based specifically on addressing these issues:

1. Lean Six Sigma Marketing Principles
2. Creating a Current State Map
3. Simplifying and removing waste in your marketing
4. Controlling your Work in Process
5. Creating a Customer Centric Budget
6. Creating your Marketing Kanban
7. Determining your Constraint
8. Putting your Value Stream into Action

How many times has a good idea failed because of a poor plan or execution? For start-ups and established organizations alike, Business901 provides effective but easy to use methodologies. It is flexible enough to allow you to apply your own ideas, while giving you guidance before, during and after. We will provide practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that can have immediate impact on the success of your organization.

P.S. 90 Day Program – ask for details about our Achieving Expert Status Program

Learn More:

• Value Stream Marketing – 28 Day Program
• Marketing your Black Belt – 28 Day Program
• Get Clients NOW! – 28 Day Program
• Lean Marketing Assessment – Webinar

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Marketing your Black Belt: Every 2 weeks  on Friday. Marketing your Black Belt is based specifically on addressing these issues: Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Customer Retention and Communication & Collaboration.

Get Clients NOW – 28 Day Program: Program starting on first Monday of every month: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (GMT-0500).Program Structure and Agenda: During the first three sessions you will receive all the tools and training needed to design your individual 28-day marketing action plan. The listing above is the starting date for the program. You have signed up to start on that Monday this listed and for the following 28 days.

Lean Marketing Assessment: First Wednesday of every month. This program will allow participants to gain a clear snapshot of their present marketing conditions and practices. The participants can use the assessment to determine areas in need of improvement and develop a plan accordingly.

Value Stream Marketing: Thursday, August 12, 2010 from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (ET) (New). We want our participants to learn how to utilize a Sales and Marketing Value Stream through the use of a Marketing Kanban.

How many times has a good idea failed because of a poor plan or execution? For start-ups and established organizations alike, Business901 provides effective but easy to use methodologies. It is flexible enough to allow you to apply your own ideas, while giving you guidance before, during and after. We will provide practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that can have immediate impacts on the success of small and mid-sized businesses. Our experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.

Visit the individual webinar pages for additional details

P.S.  Ask for details about our Achieving Expert Status Program

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(You may need a password to log in., if you don’t have one sign up.

• Sample Script for Approaching Referral Partners – Tool by C.J. Hayden
  I frequently recommend to entrepreneurs that they focus their marketing on building referral partnerships instead of attracting clients by advertising and promotion or approaching them cold. With a few pointers, most entrepreneurs can identify many possible referral sources. But I’m often asked how to best go about approaching these potential partners.
• Advertising Doesn’t Equal Marketing – Article by C.J. Hayden
  I asked a new client recently what he had been doing to market his professional services. “Everything,” he said. “I’ve been running pay-per-click ads on the web, I paid a copywriter to write a sales letter and mailed it to a list of local companies, I have a display ad in the Yellow Pages, I’ve even been posting flyers around town… and I still have almost no business.”
• Doing What Comes Naturally – Article by C.J. Hayden
  One of the worst marketing mistakes a self-employed professional can make is to create a marketing plan that consists of activities you don’t enjoy and aren’t good at. There’s no boss looking over your shoulder, so who’s going to make you do things you don’t want to?
• Is it a great opportunity or a waste of time? – Q & A by C.J. Hayden
  As business owners, we are frequently offered “opportunities” that may deliver a significant return, but also have the potential to take up a great deal of time. You may be asked to provide your professional expertise, collaborate on a project, help with organizing an event, or partner on a new venture.

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Can Introvert Tendencies be a Marketing Advantage

Joan was my facilitator when I became a Get Clients NOW™ Facilitator and still offers the program and has a program starting on May 11th.  She is an outstanding instructor and I have never met anyone that facilitates a tele-seminar better.

If you would prefer to listen to the podcast it can be found here. Related Podcast:

Related Posts:
Business901 Posts on Get Clients NOW™!
Achieving Expert Status
Marketing Your Black Belt

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• I know what I’m doing; why do I need a business plan? – Q & A by C.J. Hayden
  While it’s true that many business owners never take time to write a business plan, it’s also a fact that two-thirds of all new businesses fail in the first five years. The majority of failed businesses never had a written plan.
  
• Promoting Your Business with People Power – Article by C.J. Hayden
  The most powerful marketing technique available may cost you nothing. Getting other people to promote your business is not only the least expensive marketing you can find, it’s often the most effective. When people begin telling their friends about you, a stream of clients arrives at your door ready to buy. In a world overloaded with marketing messages, personal endorsements can be the key to marketing success.
  
• Follow You, Follow Me, Follow Up – Article by Frank Traditi
  Remember the Phil Collins song “Follow You, Follow Me?” I’d like to add one more line to those lyrics — follow up! Imagine that over the next five days, you were to meet five people who have the potential to immediately: 1) give you a lead, 2) do business with you, or 3) introduce you to a person who will hire you.
  
• Stop Selling and Start Serving – Article by C.J. Hayden
  “I don’t like to sell.” “Asking people for business makes me uncomfortable.” “Selling feels manipulative and sleazy.” “I’m good at what I do. Why don’t clients just come to me?” If any of these thoughts seem familiar, you may be stuck in an outdated perspective about selling that is holding back your success.

Related Site: Get Clients Now!

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Get Clients Now Answer Center

 
Here are this month’s new additions to the Answer Center. (You’ll need your password to log in.)

• Designing a Compelling 30-Second Introduction – Audio by C.J. Hayden
  Get Clients Now! facilitator Cristina Favreau interviews C.J. Hayden on how to design a compelling 30-second self-introduction, commercial, or elevator speech.
• Is Your Marketing Stuck for Words? – Article by C.J. Hayden
  Many aspects of business are driven by numbers, but marketing often seems to be all about words. Whether it’s naming your business, coming up with a tag line, or writing copy for your website, you probably spend a big chunk of your marketing time trying to find just the right words.
• Planning to Meet Your Business Goals – Article by Donna Feldman
  Many business owners start the year with a written list of things they intend to accomplish, yet by year’s end these goals have either been forgotten or left by the wayside, ready to be recycled for the coming year.
• Don’t Wait for Tax Time to Look at the Bottom Line – Article by C.J. Hayden
  A curious thing happens to entrepreneurs in the spring of every year. They wake up one day and realize they had better figure out how much money they made last year so they can pay their taxes. But wait, shouldn’t a business owner already know how much money he or she made last year, last quarter, or last month?

Related Site:

Get Clients Now!

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Marketing your Black Belt: Every 2 weeks  on Friday. Marketing your Black Belt is based specifically on addressing these issues: Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Customer Retention and Communication & Collaboration.

Get Clients NOW – 28 Day Program: Program starting on first Monday of every month: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (GMT-0500).Program Structure and Agenda: During the first three sessions you will receive all the tools and training needed to design your individual 28-day marketing action plan. The listing above is the starting date for the program. You have signed up to start on that Monday this listed and for the following 28 days.

Lean Marketing Assessment: First Wednesday of every month. This program will allow participants to gain a clear snapshot of their present marketing conditions and practices. The participants can use the assessment to determine areas in need of improvement and develop a plan accordingly.

Value Stream Marketing: Thursday, March 11, 2010 from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (ET) (New). We want our participants to learn how to utilize a Sales and Marketing Value Stream which is an entire different procedure than your typical Marketing Funnel.

Lean Your Marketing thru Referrals: Monday, April 05, 2010 at 12:00 PM (GMT-0500). These groups are the most affordable way for you to crank up your marketing and build your business. Learn new techniques, create a Referral Message that will resonate with your Customers, Not other Marketers!

How many times has a good idea failed because of a poor plan or execution? For start-ups and established organizations alike, Business901 provides effective but easy to use methodologies. It is flexible enough to allow you to apply your own ideas, while giving you guidance before, during and after. We will provide practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that can have immediate impacts on the success of small and mid-sized businesses. Our experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.

Visit the individual webinar pages for additional details

P.S.  Ask for details about our Achieving Expert Status Program

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