How do we get into these ruts anyway? Who would voluntarily
lie down in that grave, shallow or otherwise? Dr. Edward
Debono suggests that thoughts are pathways literally
"etched" in our brain as electrical connections, that get
strengthened each time we think them -- thus limiting our
mental options. Just like cow paths...

By the time you come roaring up the onramp in your shiny
SUV, your direction is all mapped out in front of you.
There's no way to turn, and no where to go but towards the
next exit. If you want to chart a fresh direction you are
going to have to grab the steering wheel and give it a hard,
gut-wrenching yank to the right.

And so it is with your thoughts and actions. Repeating them
a few times all but insures you will comfortably repeat them
indefinitely unless you take deliberate - possibly
disruptive -- action to do otherwise.

Here are seven rut busters I use with my business coaching
clients that you can apply immediately to get yourself and
your business out of a rut.

1. Shift your mindset from self to customer.

Most business people think of themselves first. They craft
product and service offers from their own perspective and
consider themselves the beneficiaries of their actions.
While that's not wrong, to get out of your rut do this: put
yourself into the mind of your customer. Who are these
people anyway? What are they concerned about? What are they
trying to accomplish? If you were your customer, what would
you think of that new product, marketing campaign, or mail
piece? Are you selling your wonderful "stuff", or are you
providing them tangible, meaningful benefits. Ask, "If I
were the customer, would I care?" And if not, consider,
"What WOULD I get excited about?"

2. Shift your mindset from customer to client.

A customer is someone who buys your goods or services. The
original meaning of client is entirely different: someone
who is under your care and protection. Now that's a switch,
isn't it? If they're customers, your goal is to get them to
buy something. But if you were to think of them as under
your care - would you approach your business from another
angle? How would you take care of them? How would you
"protect" them? What new programs would you want to
implement immediately?

3. Revisit your vision

Whenever I feel like I'm in a rut I return to my vision and
I do two things. First, I make sure it still inspires me and
that it is pointing me in the direction I want to go. Once
sure, I put pen to paper and rewrite it. Not just once, but
over and over. And I keep writing until I can't write it
anymore because I'm jumping up and down with a new idea I
must do something about right away.

4. Conduct a Survey

If you don't know what to do next, ask your clients. (They
are clients, aren't they?) Conduct a survey about anything
that interests you. Ask them what's bothering them. Ask them
what they're stuck on. Ask them what they like about your
company and what they'd like you to do next. Ask them about
new features, or new products, or new services. If you're
not happy with your current customers, conduct a survey
among the kind of people you'd like to have as customers.
And, if you can't do that, conduct a survey online. Write an
attractive search engine ad, promise something of value, and
drive people to a survey page. Ask them anything you like -
the answers will almost always provide you with a neat mind-
shift.

5. Focus on building your strengths and dump your
weaknesses.

From the time we are little children we are taught to better
ourselves by working on our weaknesses. This is often both
frustrating and fruitless, and certainly not as much fun as
practicing our strengths. Try this on: What if you focused
100 percent of your energy on being world-class in those few
things at which you are already very good, and outtasked or
outsourced those things at which you were mediocre. Imagine
if you never had to face any of those things again and could
spend all your time doing the good stuff. Would that change
the way you felt about your business? Would that bust you
out of your rut?

6. Not if, but how.

Think of that wild and crazy idea you had recently. The one
where you said to yourself, "That would be great, but
there's just no way." Well, I know there's no way - you just
said so -- but if there was a way, what would it be? Answer
that question as if you believed it was possible - probable
even -- and then get busy making it real. That's power, you
know -- turning your vision into reality. Talk about a
breakthrough!

7. What are you willing to sacrifice?

Some important things are more important than other
important things, and trying to keep all those plates
spinning in the air saps your vigor for the ones that truly
matter. Dissipated energy - lethargy -- is one of the
reasons we lie down in that rut in the first place, and
dropping a few of those plates can really help things break
loose. So let go. Make the sacrifice. Clear your plate and
give up some of those precious things you've been holding on
to. Focus your vitality on plans which will really rock your
world.

Ruts? Who needs 'em.

We've got a new program called the Turnkey Your Business
Home Study Program which is helping people bust out of their
ruts by transforming their businesses into repeatable
consistent systems, freeing up tons of creativity in the
process. Click on http://turnkeycoach.com to find out more.

Best regards,

Paul Lemberg

Happily, I have an answer for this question, but like many
things in life, it carries both good news and bad news. The
good news is, if you are one of those fortunate few with
access to unlimited resources, you can get everything done...

Because among all the people I know - not a single one of
them - not one - has access to unlimited resources. Even
executives I work with whose budgets run into the hundreds
of millions - even they do not have unlimited resources.
Even they have to make choices and trade-offs.

Earl Nightingale once asked the question, "What one thing
would you do if you knew you could not fail?" And Jack
Palance's Curly in City Slickers, asked a similar question:
"What is the one thing?"

Their questions contains seeds of the answer to this
quandary.

Because all things on your plate are not created equal.
They are not all important. They do not all have the same
impact, the same dependencies, the same possibility of
reward.

And even if you think they do, upon close examination you'll
find they do not.

The trick of course, is to figure out the one thing that
matters most...

Right now...

And focus on that.

Of all the ideas I have sifted through in my role as an
executive coach and business coach among the most relevant
is the concept of sacrifice. My definition is giving up
something of value for something of even greater value.

Sacrifice is the key. You have to let go of your attachment
to most things on your plate, and figure out what things are
of greatest value.

You don't get everything done, and you can't get everything
important done. If you select well, and are willing to
sacrifice the rest, you can get the most important things
done. By letting go of the rest, everything essential,
everything vital, everything earth-shattering can be done.

Can you imagine what life would be like if you only worked
on things that were earth-shattering?

While this seems simple, obvious even, most of us have
struggled with it all our lives.

You probably have trouble figuring out, from day to day,
what is going to make the greatest difference. I'd be
willing to bet that if you take a look, you probably can't
even figure out what the criteria are.

So let's go back to Earl Nightingale's question: What one
thing would do if you knew you could not fail?

Look at the things on your to-do list this way:

What will have the biggest impact?

What will yield the greatest revenues and profits?

What will open the doors to the future you desire?

What has the strongest possibility of success?

What has the largest reward to risk ratio?

What will give you the finest return on your investment?

What will free up the most time?

What will free up the most resources?

What will help you realize your success strategy?

And, what will bring you closest to your goals?

If you can first figure out which among these questions are
most relevant for you, and answer them for all your
projects, you can rank the things on your plate according to
what matters most and is absolutely essential.

And once you do that, you can figure out which among all the
various tasks you have should - no, must - get your
attention.

THOSE ARE THE ONLY ONES YOU WORK ON.

Get those done, and if you have time left over, turn your
attention to the next batch.

I call it strategic focus. Figuring out what's really going
to rock your world. Figuring out what is really going to
deliver the goods. And working on those things.

Only those things.

The rest of it will simply have to wait.

Maybe forever.

If you can wrap your mind around this one simple idea,
figuring out what to do next becomes pretty easy. And
because you are focusing your energies on few things instead
of many, things get done.

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." Inscription From Machiavelli's Tomb

I've developed the following list of qualities needed by a leader who is trying to transform their organization.

1. Focus on what's possible, rather than on what is likely.

3. Seek opportunities in the face of risk

4. Value effectiveness over efficiency

5. Don't react to circumstances, instead seek to shape and create new ones.

6. Emphasize individual responsibility for measurable results

7. Question old assumptions, because the are old assumptions

8. Reward success with customized incentives.

9. Use self interest to inspire action, then transcend self-interest.

10. Have a healthy disrespect for the prevailing politics.

If you would like to know more, and need help applying these qualities to your organization, get in touch with me via email (see my website at www.lemberg.com ) or call at +1, 858-951-3055 x5.

And one of the worst.

Price cutting.

Before you make your next price cut in the face of sales resistance, the question you have to ask yourself is not, "Does it work?," but rather, "Can you live with the bargain?"

If you are like most people in a selling situation, your first response to not buying is to say, "Would you buy if... ?," and the "if" is always some variant of, "...if the price was lower?"

And you ask it almost before you ask them WHY they won't buy.

Many salespeople mentally calculate the discount into their profit, and start discounting even before they try to close the deal. And almost everyone faced with an end-of-quarter crunch to "make the numbers" plays the discount game. In many industries, it's become common practice to give away all the profits -- customers are now trained to expect it.

Trouble is, people are not usually ¡®not buying' because your price is too high...

So if they are saying "no," or simply not "yes," it either means they are experienced buyers waiting for you to spontaneously cut your price, or it means they just do not see a sufficiently compelling value...yet.

Cutting your prices will almost never lead to new sales if they didn't plan on buying in the first place, and the effect on your profits can be devastating. Follow these numbers:

Let's say you sell a product for $100. Your cost is $70. That means it carries a thirty percent margin-your profit is $30. Now, to make a sale, you are "forced" to cut your price by twenty percent. Your new selling price is $80. All things being equal, your profit is now $10-instead of $30. That means a 20% price reduction cost you 66% of your profits.

TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR PROFITS for a 20% price reduction!

Cut your price much more and your profit quickly goes to zero. Or lower.

And that's not even the worst of it.

Once you lower prices, they tend to stay low. That $100 widget you just sold for $80 is now an $80 widget.

Even more damaging, your like-minded competitors will almost definitely lower their prices, and you, my friend, are in a price war, and now you need very deep pockets indeed.

So for these three reasons-depressed profit margins, permanently lowered prices, and the devastation of a price war-it's a bad idea to lower your prices to buy business-regardless of the economic climate.

What can you do instead?

The two main strategies are clarifying and quantifying the value, and packaging products or services to maintain higher prices.

Here's an interesting example. One of my clients-a software company-had a hot prospect who didn't want to buy the typical contract for software maintenance. Rather than 18% annually, they wanted to pay ad hoc.

My client knew that customers without maintenance are never happy. They never get the service they need, and even though it's their fault for skimping, they point the finger at you and badmouth your company.

Instead we offered the prospect a four year non-cancelable maintenance contract, with the first year free. It reduced the total price 25 percent and gave them a year's grace period, but guaranteed more revenue than the prospect's original commitment. Plus, they locked in for four years, plenty of time for upsells, resells and cross-sells.

Price cutting is the "lazy man's" response when it's hard to make sales. Unfortunately, it may not boost total revenues, and results in drastically lowered profits. Worse, it can permanently reduce prices and margins, and can often cause even a price war.

Sell the value instead. Spend the time to discover what your prospect is trying to accomplish, and make sure your product or service helps them do that. Then establish the quantifiable financial impact, and sell them that. Or package, bundle or go for the long-term, multi-year commitment.

There are other approaches that not only maintain price levels, but even support higher ones. To get an overview of those approaches, visit http://www.lemberg.com/tipsandtools.html and download "5 tactics to avoid price cutting."

--PL

Paul Lemberg is the director of the Stratamax Research Institute, (www.lemberg.com) a breakthrough consulting firm works with organizations and entrepreneurs to boost profits quickly using a system called Revenue Pulsing?, and will "turnkey" your business for increased scalability and salability. You can reach him by email at paul@lemberg.com or by phone at 858-951-3055.

2004 Paul Lemberg

No it's not spam. It's not viruses. It's not a worm.

It doesn't cost corporations millions - in fact the only people who seem to be paying for it are those who don't recognize it for what it is.

It's infosleaze.

Infosleaze is a new form of "information" marketing - typically sold in downloadable PDF or other e-book format...

But let's back up a minute.

Most good books - in fact, most good information products of any kind - including books, audio programs, magazines, video - and yes - even ezines - are the free-flowing outcome of a personal (or corporate) passion for a subject. They are created by someone who has steeped themselves in a subject, thought long and hard about it's impact and deeper meaning, and created some expression of that work.

Now all this thinking doesn't make the thing good, but it's a good start. I'd say it's the best start possible.

Then there's infosleaze.

Infosleaze is created using a different process. First research is done to find out what questions are on people's minds. (So far, so good.)

Second a writer is hired who will seek answers - of some kind - to these questions, and whip them into a book.

Now, you might say to yourself - why is that bad? I want answers to my questions.

The question is one of quality.

In infosleaze, the only purpose to "creating" an answer to the question is to sell a product. To be able to say you have answers to a burning question so people will buy your product.

The problem is no attention is paid to whether the answer is a good one or not. And therein lies the sleaze factor. Because with infosleaze it's all about the sale. None of it is about providing a solid product with top-quality, usable information.

I recently heard one marketer say proudly that his products were "crappy." And they are! They are crappy - and yet they sell like hotcakes. Why? Because the masterful marketing material claims - justifiably - that these sleazebooks answer all of the potential reader's burning questions.

And they do, after a fashion.

It's just a sleazy fashion.

Look - there's nothing wrong with researching a market to understand what the issues are, and crafting a well-researched, well-written book that addresses those questions. What separates a quality product from a sleazy one is the attention paid to whether the answers to the questions will make a difference for the reader.

There's a big difference between answering a question in form and answering it in substance. It's called value.

Most people have way too complicated a view of how their companies are organized, which makes it hard to make things better and improve profits.

Instead, think about your business as simply as possible. Consider the smallest number of units which allow you function. Or perhaps, think about it as an expense statement with the fewest possible line items. I like the first way better, which will lead you to a P&L analysis when you're done.

1. Sales and Marketing - telling people about what you've got, and helping them purchase it.

2. Product Development - coming up with cool things the market wants and will pay for.

3. Production (or operations) - manufacturing and/or delivering the products and services PD comes up with, in sufficient quantity and with low-enough costs

4. Customer Care - making sure your clients (customers) are satisfied, loyal and repeat buyers.

5. Executives, Administration and Overhead - the glue that holds everything together.

That's it.

Think about this and let me know if you come up with any other "core critical" elements to a business. I don't think there are any.

PL

Or, asked another way - is what I am doing now making the largest contribution possible. (Of course, only ask this question about "up time" - during "down time" it makes no sense.) Could I be doing something else that would make an even larger contribution? Is what I am doing critical to my success?

Strategy is the allocation of scarce resource to best achieve your goals. Most of us would list time as a scarce resource. Make sure you are using your up time to work on factors which are critical to your business.

It doesn't matter when you do this ritual, but you really should do it sometime soon.

It has been said all the way back to the time of the ancients: goals and written plans for their attainment are the surest way to speed up your accomplishments.

Skipping this step is not an option!

As you buckle down to this unbelievably important task, consider: are you planning for business as usual or are you planning for wonderful, extraordinary, growth? Many people feel beaten down by the past three years of economic mis-performance and think a year in which profits don't retreat will be a good year...

And for the most part, it will be business as usual.

Ho hum...

Don't be either of these types...

Plan to do something extraordinary!

Plan to extend or expand or excel. And regardless of the economic forecast - which in the US is good, and in other places not so good - plan to create a breakthrough in your business.

Sounds good... How?

First, some fundamentals. Unless you have invented something brand new... something never before seen in the world, there are only four components to having a profitable business:

1. Have a large enough - and rich enough - market;
2. Have products or services your market wants and is willing to pay for;
3. Have a cost efficient way to obtain (and deliver) the product or service; and,
4. Have a cost efficient way to sell your product or service.

And regardless of what you may have heard in the past, there are only three ways to increase your revenue:

1. Sell to more customers;
2. Sell more to the same customers with each transaction; and,
3. Sell the same customers more often.

Think about it...

Because while all of this may seem obvious and trivial, careful consideration of these seven simple statements will provide you some mighty powerful insights into how to have a breakthrough in your business.

Second, your job is to turn these statements into the right questions.

Questions like, "How can I sell more customer?" Or, "What services can I add to my product mix to increase the size of an average transaction." Or even, "Am I selling to the right (large enough and rich enough) market?

Asking the right questions will fire off thought processes that can make you money - lots of it - provided you answer the questions and act on your answers.

Say your business sells software to plumbing supply houses. You expect the pace of building to cool off a bit this year because of global interest rate increases, which will mean that your customers will have less money to upgrade their computer systems this year. "How to sell to more customers" might not be the right question this year. But asking "how can I sell more to my current customers" might lead to an idea to develop a coaching or consulting service that helps them increase their profits - by using your software - even in a down plumbing supply market.

You could potentially sell this service to every single one of your customers! That would be a breakthrough. And asking, "how can I sell to my past customers" could yield an additional windfall as those guys will really need your help.

Or perhaps you sell web-based information to stock market traders, and the market is heating up again. You know that more "players" will be entering the game, and you know most of them will lose their shirts (again) if they don't get some help fast. Asking "how can I cost-effectively sell to more customers quickly" might lead you to some powerful joint-venture strategies. And thinking about joint ventures could lead you the question ¡®"how can I provide value to my competitors' products" which could open up a whole new market for you. Another breakthrough.

Can you see how asking questions will help you plan for extraordinary growth?

The right questions, answered in the proper order gives you what I call a Growth Strategy Roadmap. This process will direct your thinking to create breakthroughs on demand.
Sound impossible? It's not... I have seen it work over and over. In fact, I've been helping people grow their businesses for years - by showing them how to ask these critical business-building questions.

The third thing you must do, after you ask the right questions, is invent answers to those questions... and then you have to act on those answers. Of course, putting together an effective growth plan is a time consuming process, and there are lots of places for missteps that will lead to bad conclusions. But the benefits can be huge.

Which leads to the... Growth Strategy Roadmap. After years of working through these plans with clients just like you, I have identified the roadblocks and stumbling points along the path of putting together an actionable growth plan.

This Roadmap is exactly that - a complete map with predefined templates that cover this critically important ground. It gives you a step-by-step progression of questions that will walk you through this entire process.

In other words, the Growth Strategy Roadmap takes a complex process and makes it simple - it guides you each step of the way to a growth plan that 1) sells more customers, 2) sells more to your existing customers each- time, and/or 3) sells to your customers more often.

And best of all, the Growth Strategy Roadmap is a downloadable digital program - you can start building your growth plan right away. To get lots more details about this program, go to: http://www.lemberg.com/growthstrategyroadmap.html
Bottom line, you can either plan for growth... or you can sit there and watch the year go by. Guess which will get you better results?

Good luck and have a wonderful year,

Paul Lemberg

PS, The Growth Strategy Roadmap walks you through a series of questions designed to ferret out the most compelling opportunities in your market - which means you will capitalize on your assets, strengths, and competitive openings. It also means you will be more nimble if any critical threats suddenly loom over your business. Find out more about the Growth Strategy Roadmap now: http://www.lemberg.com/growthstrategyroadmap.html
PS. No matter how good the Growth Strategy Roadmap is, some people really want hands-on help in charting a profitable growth plan for the coming year. If this describes you, give me a call me at 858-951-3055 x5, or drop me a note describing your business situation to paul@lemberg.com. Please be as specific as possible.

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