Business Coach Dan Creed on Business during the Holidays

Happy holidays to all!

I hope that you’re keeping warm wherever you are? Heating up your business activity is a good way to keep busy. I personally subscribe to over 30 newsletters and blogs from some of the top business development; motivational experts; retailing experts and business coaches in the world. Last week there seemed to be a theme that I was preaching as well.
Right now, today and for the next month or more is the greatest time in history for aggressive salespeople and businesspeople, hard working salespeople/businesspeople to be selling something, anything, successfully. Why, because your wimpy competition is in hiding. Everyone is sticking their head in the sand and many salespeople/businesspeople are:

Crying and moaning and agreeing with the gloom and doom pundits about how bad they perceive the economy to be, or;
Using the economy woes and everyone’s fears as an excuse to go play more golf or sit around the office.

While your competition is “cocooning” you need to be attacking. The field is wide open. Now is your time to be a positive light (maybe the only positive light) for all of your prospects and customers. Give them options, be creative, help them think positive and be positive. Ask them for their business or ask them for more business. Be sure to have a strong “Call to Action” in all of your advertising and marketing and be sure to answer the WII-FM questions, “WHAT’s IN IT FOR ME?” questions.

This is a great time to steal market share from your competition and build tons of good will that will last far beyond the difficult times and into the good times.

I’ve also added a very nice piece below that I want to share with you. It’s called “The Eight Essential Clarity Questions in a Challenging Economy”…..These are questions that you really need to ask yourself about your business an yourself as you plan your goals and business strategy for 2009. And remember, if you might need some help with goals; time management; strategic planning; business plans and more, give me a call or drop me a line. Business Coaching is one of the best gifts you can give you and your business for 2009.

"8 ESSENTIAL CORE QUESTIONS IN A CHALLENGING ECONOMY"
1. What are your core competencies? What do you do very well? It’s essential to know this. Be honest with yourself. You can’t do everything but you can do some things very well! So, Identify them and do more of them.

2. What are your core activities? Guerilla marketing experts now say that 10% of your activities will produce 90% of your profits! Identify them and focus on them, NOW.

3. What are your core products and services? What products and/or services produce the most sales or highest profit? (Pareto’s Law)This used to be the 80/20 rule, but today the 90/10 rule seems to be the standard! 90% of your profit will come from 10% of your products. Identify your winners and focus your efforts on them.

4. What/Who are your core customers? In most businesses 20% of your customers produce 80% of all sales, who are these people? Focus on them, care for them more, ask them for more business and ask them for referrals!

5. Who are the core people in your company? Identify your keepers! If you have problem team members or slackers, now is not the time to have anyone that isn’t a major contributor! Deal with it!


6. What are your core sales and marketing methods? Millions of advertising dollars are being wasted today because “That’s the way we’ve always marketed!” Marketing effectiveness has changed and your consumers have changed. If you’re not getting results stop it now and build a new strategy that works featuring low cost and high impact.

7. What can I do NOW to protect my core business from the worse thing that could possibly happen? A key component of surviving and thriving is preparedness. It’s tough but you must ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen to your business? Be aware and then plan ahead to prevent it from happening or at least how you would deal with it.

8. What are the core strengths that I have as a person? Leaders know…
a. What they’re good at
b. What they’re bad at
c. What they like to do
d. What they don’t like to do

9. What are your core opportunities? Open up your eyes and understand what opportunities are staring you in the face. Be aware of them and don’t miss them, act on them now. Time is your worst enemy!




Good Luck All!
Happy Holidays
Dan Creed,
FocalPointCoaching
www.focalpointcoaching.com