A major role for a company CEO’s or a management leader is learning how to effectively motivate employees or team members.  Some people are born motivators, but all of us can learn the skill sets that helps us support the motivation of other individuals or a team.  Developing some simple skill sets can help you more effectively support the motivation of others while creating less stress for yourself while helping your company reach their goals and objectives. We have found at Two Degrees Marketing our clients respond well to training and coaching concerning motivating employees and management. Our leadership training we offer as part of business consulting services pays back large dividends in increased employee productivity, company growth, better morale, and generally increases the companies bottom line.

Understanding people and what motivates them takes building relationship with your employees or team.  Ultimately, long-term motivation comes from people motivating themselves; below are listed some catalysts for motivation and ways we can effectively support employees in succeeding on the job:

ASK: Understanding what motivates people is essential to knowing how to motivate them.  The easiest way to find out what motivates people; find out what their passionate about.  Not only ask people, study their body language when they are answering questions for clues to how they really feel about a subject.

Asking for an employees or team members input is empowering; asking how things could be done better, will give you valuable information and allow the person to be part of the process.  Responding with further questions, allows the conversation to open up further, creating the opportunity for several conversations of this nature; you will find relationships and trust developing while finding out what motivates people.

INCLUSION: When undertaking minor and major changes within your team or organization, go beyond asking for advice and opinions, involve people in the process, analysis and design solutions.  Involving people in the definition of challenge will help people take ownership.  Involving team members in the analysis to create solutions will help them with ownership in the solution alternatives while giving them an investment in the outcome.  People appreciate being part of the process, consensus building is inclusive, creates team dynamics, builds trust, and the group involvement helps create better solutions.

COMMUNICATE: Communication seems like a basic, but in the flurry of accomplishment the communication process can get short changed.  When anticipating change, let your team know your intentions.  Include them in the goal setting process.  Explain your process, hopes, goals and intentions.  Include them in the process.  Explain how to find out more information.  Explain how they can be part of the process and their comments and thoughts are important.  Listen.  Listen to their approach, their aspirations, listen to how change affects them. Be sure to keep this channel open for both good and bad news.  Keep the channels open and use many different mediums.

Starting your conversation with, “ I know you are busy or how can we do things different” are important ways of keeping communication open while obtaining valuable input from your team or employees.  Explain your expectations; people appreciate knowing the standards you wish to see met.  Make your wishes explicit.  Develop standards people can count on.  The standard will include a minimum and a measurement evaluation with time elements included. People can tend to be de-motivated by a whirlpool of information or an ever-shifting landscape.  People are usually de-motivated by arbitrary rules or standards.  Understanding creates cohesive relationships and a team that works well together.

APPRECIATION: Appreciation shows people they count; appreciate people’s achievements in public.  Keep your comments first person, real, stating the achievement and what is being commended.  No one is left in doubt as to what behavior created the consequences, because the precise behavior is being commended.  You are reinforcing a precise behavior to your team with praise.

REPRIMAND: Privacy is the main component for reprimanding behavior.  Embarrassing people de-motivates the team. Explaining exactly what behavior missed the mark, be specific about what, why and how the behavior was unacceptable and your rationale.  Be specific about consequences about repeating behavior so your team member or employee has a choice.  Ask for their input about how you can support them in improving their outcomes.  Working together to create a favorable outcome builds trust and partnership.

CONFIDENCE: Help build your employee’s confidence by building on their strengths.  Set up mentorship situations within your organization to share skill sets with other employees.  Monitor progress and appreciate the steps they are taking in stepping into leadership roles.  Being successful teaching another person builds self esteem and empowers both team members while building solid relationships.  Use all resources within your budget to help coach and train the people in your company; the rewards will greatly outweigh the expense.

DELEGATE: Delegate responsibilities to competent people within your company.  Clearly state what is expected, setting mutual goals.  Only monitor at the beginning of the delegation process at agreed upon intervals, once competence is proven stop monitoring except for normal quality audits.  Make sure the tools and skills needed for execution of the task are readily available.  Lead like you would like others to follow; delegating tasks that your team member or employee are responsible for can decrease stress while building a motivated team.

The key to motivating people is understanding the people you lead, listening and valuing their input, while keeping communications lines open, and including your team management in your process, while taking mutual ownership of goals.  Consensus building is a skill that helps you build a strong team with an investment in the outcome with each person taking responsibility in the success of the project or business.  Building a strong team is a process that builds leaders as it builds a unified team and a successful company. Call us for a free consultation to see how we can help your company thrive!

Every salesperson would like to excel at sales. What does it take to go from good to great in sales? I could mention dozens of different closing techniques to help increase your closing ratio, but I want to focus on some basics today that help salespeople excel in closing sales. As part of Two Degrees Marketing business consulting services we train teams in sales techniques. We also train receptionists and assistants in lawyers, doctors, dentist, and other professional service businesses the art of soft closing techniques.

Many of these techniques will seem simple or self evident, but personalizing and customizing these techniques and using them consistently, can increase your sales while having you enjoying the process more. Sales is an art when done professionally. Most of these techniques or skills are simple, but not always easy to remember when in a sales meeting or sales call. Using them consistently, practicing these techniques, and incorporating them into your sales process can help take your sales from good to great. Go easy take on one technique at a time until it feels natural and then add in other techniques as your closing techniques improve.

Sales-Start with the End in Mind

Wanting to close the sale is one of the most important factors in closing a sale. You probably think, who wouldn’t want to close a sale-but every sales starts with focus, intention, and preparation. It is important to prepare for a sale with understanding your potential client, by doing a full background research about your prospective client. Review current news, social media, press releases, their company website, be sure to do Internet research about the company and the CEO or president, to help prepare for your sales meeting or sales call. The better you understand the company and their current needs, the more confident you will be in your sales presentation. People also appreciate when you can engage on a more informed level about their company and they appreciate that you have taken the time to become educated about their company.

Talk Less and Ask More Questions

Once you have done your background research on a prospective client, you are equipped with information that helps you generate engaging questions that will help guide your sales presentation or sales call. Prepare a series of engaging questions, all of which are open-ended, not questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. When preparing your questions keep in mind your objectives and create questions that will gently lead your potential client to the desired decision. If you understand a company’s objectives you can then understand how your product or service will be a solution to their needs. Be sure to remember-He who talks least controls the conversation the most. A sure sign of a rookie salesperson is someone that needs to dominate the conversation.

Don’t Tell Me What I Need- Ask Me what I Want

People don’t like to be told what to do. They don’t like to be indoctrinated, they like to be educated. When asking questions be sure to ask a prospective client what they would like or what they want. A prospective client properly queried will give you the closing information you need to close the sale. Be sure to focus on benefits versus features and facts. The easiest way to get a sales call off track is to focus on the features, that’s about your company. When you tell about the benefits, the conversation is focused on the potential client. Most sales call end with a prospective client making a decision from being moved by emotions, not from an intellectual fact filled presentation. Base your discussions on results and benefits to the prospective client.

Know Your Competition

Knowing your competition that your client may be evaluating in relationship to the services or products you company provides gives you a competitive edge. Being knowledgeable about your competition’s strengths, limitations, where they conduct business, how their product or service are rated, customer service, and company profile will help you be better informed about how your potential client would size up your product or service compared to your competitor. One of the basic tenants in sales is to know your competition better than you know your own company; your strength in a sales meeting or sales call will come from a thorough understanding of how your company’s product or service stacks up to your competitors. Market research and competitive analysis is the foundation for delivering quality to your client and closing sales.

Be Solution Oriented

Master the art of seeing the solution rather than focusing on the problem. Be caring, but don’t take things personally. A “no” is not a “no” to you, it’s a “no” for now to the product or service. Many times in sales trainings I have explained to salespeople to visualize a sales call or sales presentation as a tennis game, board game, or poker hand; always care about the outcome, be invested in creating a solution, but realize most successful sales people hear a lot of “no’s getting getting to a “yes”.  An attitude I appreciate, if you can answer yes to a client and then figure a way to deliver on the “yes”, it is better than double thinking yourself so you don’t get to the “yes”.

Be sure to reward yourself when you make a sale or a sales quota; giving yourself an experience or small gift to reward yourself for a job well done is a carrot than can help you focus on your goals and outcomes. Enjoying the sales process will help you take you from good to great in sales. People enjoy working with people who enjoy what they do. At Two Degrees Marketing we consistently exceed our clients expectations. We love what we do and it shows!  Share with us on Facebook what has worked best for you in closing sales.

The cornerstone of building a strong company is a high degree of trust that fosters a quality relationship. No matter how good the newest piece of technology, it is only a tool to help develop a simpler way to maintain a good relationship with clients.  Whether we are talking CRM software or the newest mobile application, the tool is only as good as the trust and relationship building skills of the company liaisons. With a mobile world these days it’s a high priority to assure that your company website is built with mobile compatibility in mind.

Great companies are built on the relationship and trust that grows between a company and their clients.  There are three fundamental pillars for establishing relationship and trust with a client:

• Integrity: This part of the equation is based on behavior and is driven by a company’s consistency and transparency in relationship to their business and clients.  It has never been more important to be consistent since with social media any bad news travels fast via social media channels.  Any one can have an off day, but what happens the remainder of the year is what counts.  When a company gets bad press or has a customer service challenge, they need to respond quickly, address the situation calmly and honestly, acknowledge it, make it right and move on.

• Ability: This is based on the quality of a product plus customer service and is judged by demonstrable results in the consumer arena.  Poor customer service can undermine the best of products and eventually the clients trust.

• Behavior: Clients look for congruent behavior with implicit and explicit brand and business values; and responsiveness to the client based on those values.  Incongruities between behavior and values erodes trust and the relationships that a company has worked hard to build with clients.

We help companies build a brand and reputation clients can depend; helping to foster a growing relationship and trust throughout the years. Our consulting practice focuses on giving our clients the tools that creates a congruent behavior and culture their clients can depend on.  Through social media and organizational consulting we assist clients in telling their unique story; engaging the end user through design and social media.

Both TOMS Shoes and Zappos are great examples of these principles in action. Both companies focus on their culture, consistency and keeping values and goals in sync with both management and their employees.  Also both companies have broken many traditional business rules, but have risen to the top through their united values and their commitment to providing excellent customer service. Toms and Zappos are great examples of company outreach through social media. See some wonderful examples of corporate social media outreach: Twitter-Zappos, Twitter-Toms-Shoes, Facebook-Zappos, Facebook-Toms-Shoes

Create Ongoing Dialogue with Clients

Choose the social networks that your clients use-that is best place to start your company’s social dialogue. The growth we have seen in social media from the height of MySpace in 2007 and SecondLife to Facebook and Twitter emerging as social media leaders in 2009 to the emergence of Foursquare and Groupon in 2010 is a trend we see in social media to constantly change and adapt to our use, lifestyle and businesses.  You are now able to build on the relationship capability of social networks with the addition of location-based elements we see the emergence of social shopping as a real opportunity for business.

As your company hones their social media presence, remember to keep some of your tried and true marketing tools because they still have an important role to play.  Websites, email, blogs newsletter, brochures, and CRM software still have their place.  All of these marketing elements help support your social media presence and give alternative communications avenues to support your customer service goals.  By combining traditional marketing with social media marketing techniques, you are able customize your marketing message and increase the impact of your company’s message.

The marketing tools you use are only as good as the people and the processes that drive their delivery.  The ability to execute a plan is what makes your marketing plan come together and have real power in the marketplace. When ideas, plans and tools are synchronized in a focused marketing message a company is better able to find a client’s sweet spot or hot buttons to help build relationship.

Knowing your customer, being able to describe who they are, what they want, where they shop, how they make decisions, what is important to them, is the beginning of building a strong relationship with potential clients.  These are also good questions to answer in knowing how to deliver excellent customer service to potential clients. One of the key elements we focus on at Two Degrees Marketing is our competitive analysis and market research for our clients. You need to know your competition’s strengths and weaknesses as well, if not better than your own. Play to your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

Keep integrity, ability and your company’s behavior in sync with your culture, values, and goals and you will be on your way to producing excellent customer service and a marketing message that is responsive to your clients needs.

We are nearing the end of the year and it’s a good time for reflection. Have you achieved your goals this year? Have you come close to achieving your goals? What has gotten in the way of you achieving your goals?  What have you learned in pursuit of your goals this year? What has been your biggest challenge?

We believe in goal setting at Two Degrees Marketing, it’s integral to achieving our objectives as a company and helping our clients achieve their goals and objectives. You will notice in our Business Consulting, Strategic Marketing and Product Planning pages we always mention goals. We believe you need to start with the end in mind and we use a variety of goal setting techniques with our clients to achieve remarkable results.

Many of us have been to goal setting workshops, made New Year’s resolutions or have attained goals.  But what makes goal setting work?  Why is goal setting a critical component in achieving success personally or in business?  A wise man once said, you would pack differently if you knew you were traveling to New York rather than Hawaii.  An obvious fact, but why do some people achieve goals while others seem to take a slalom course through life?

Psychology, attitude, and aptitude are discussed in many books from Richard Bolles’s What Color is Your Parachute to Stephan Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People and how they influence attaining your goals.  But, it is Mark McCormack’s book, What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School that explains the 1979 Harvard Business School study with students in the MBA program at Harvard, outlining the critical difference goal setting makes in attaining goals.

Gain a Critical Edge in Achievement

Students were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”  The results were startling from a MBA program, only 3 % of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13% had goals, but not written, and the majority, 84% had no specific goals set at all.

Fast forward ten years and the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while predictable, were astonishing.  13% of the class who had goals were earning on average, twice as much as the 84% who had no goals.  You ask, what about the 3% who had clear written goals.  They were earning, on average, 10X as much as the other 97% who either didn’t have goals or they weren’t written goals.

Seems pretty open and shut, we should all have written goals, but it’s not that easy, most people don’t have clear, measurable, timely goals that they are working toward.  From Zig Ziglar to Brain Tracy motivational speakers pronounce the importance of goals; Brian Tracy in his book, Goals teaches how to identify in the clearest terms what you want out of life, then how to achieve those goals.  Brian Tracy says there are four reasons why people do not set goals:

• People don’t realize the importance of goals.  Take a look at the 5 people you spend the most time with, do they set goals, what is their altitude?  The people we spend the most time with greatly influence both our attitude and our altitude.
• People don’t know how to set goals.  Goals need to be measurable, specific, attainable, relevant and timely.
• People fear failure.  Failure hurts, but many successful people will share how they failed themselves to success, ferreting out a system that will lead them to their goals.  Every person or company has their hit rate, including Google, from Jaiku to Google Print Ads they had their misses, but their successes have outweighed their failures and have kept them number 1.
• People fear rejection.  People are often afraid if they miss a goal, people will be critical of their mistakes.  Some the worst criticism comes from people that don’t set goals, so share your goals with other goal setters, that know that none of us usually hit 100% and will savor your successes with you.

Goal setting is like anything else.  The more you do it the better you get at it.  Practice sharpening the saw, as Stephan Covey says and soon you will see through consistent habits of goal setting that progress is being made.  Two Degrees Marketing has seen time again with clients the power of goal setting in action. We want our clients to gain a competitive edge and have the satisfaction of achieving both their personal and business goals. So share with us on Facebook some of the goals you have achieved this year. What has made the critical difference for you?