No time for negative energy!

Wow! What a response to the 1st "Mid-Week Mentor, A 30 Second Business Time Out". Thank you and please feel free to forward to other business minded people in your organization or personal network.

Now, let's get busy...it's already the second business week of January 2010.

Lee has 30 days to turn major rental retail sales branch revenues from last year to reasonable numbers and customer satisfaction scores must be increased...just to keep his job. Sounds like fun! The company is giving him one day of training and then he must drive five hours home and meet his new crew at 6 a.m. the following morning....oh...wait...did I forget to mention his newly inherited crew of employees are all union.

It's no wonder when I came across Lee he was considering drowning himself in a few beers at the Outback Steakhouse. What a day for Lee! By happenstance, I sat down beside him at the bar and ordered a diet Coke, a steak and started asking questions. It didn't take long for Lee to down his beer, switch to water and begin taking notes.

After I heard how unfairly life was treating Lee, now that he had finally gotten his dream management job and only 30 days to prove himself in an unfamiliar environment...my first question was going to be simple. I kind of like the guy because he is 29, full of vim, vigor and vitality; so I raised my hand and asked the following: "Ok, Lee, so you got 30 days, what's your strategy?" His reply was humorous but quite normal. He looked me in the eye and said "I think the timing is right and I hope the economy is on an upswing and we will ride the natural flow of increased spending." I smiled and said I had bad news for him, the last time I checked "HOPE" was not a good business strategy. So, let's start focusing on what you can do in 30 days versus what you can't do in the next 30 days.

He agreed and so I continued to help by asking a few more pointed questions:

> Tell me what business outcomes you must hit to keep your job?

> To the best of your knowledge what is the current reality?

Once we examined the difference, Lee became excited about thinking specifically about "action steps" he could take to make the outcomes become a reality. We are now thinking strategy! After an hour of give and take Lee is at least 1) armed with a strategy 2) has four specific actions to take around (*sales, *service, *motivation and *12 questions to ask in his training session).

My final advice to Lee was to stay focused on keeping current customers and winning new customers and he would have his job after 30 days.

Stay tuned....we should have an update from Lee in two weeks.

Action steps for you:

1. What strategic steps are you committed to?

2. Are you willing to lead your team, from this day forward, to staying focused on what you can do versus what you can't do?

Focus on 3 Things This Week...

Walking back from lunch with a Divisional President of a large professional services organization, a probing question was asked of me. "John, is this really the right time for our organization to restructure? I mean really, with the down turn in the economy and all the issues we are facing and our customers are facing does it really make any sense at all?"

I stopped and smiled and said "now after spending an hour with me at lunch, two hours with your executives and an additional meeting with you... what do you think my answer will be?"

Ok I get it! He exclaimed! It's all about for whose benefit! If it is to help you keep and win more customers then the answer is "YES" anything else save your resources, energy, and frustrations.

Business is just about 3 basic functions:

1. Understanding what your market is motivated to buy, aligning you're offering, and telling the compelling story.

2. Organizing your business to deliver those offerings your market is motivated to buy.

3. Leveraging every opportunity to execute the plan of delivering what your market is motivated to buy.

Earlier in my career an exchange that I had with my mentor, who I was working for at the time, said to me "John, if you choose to make it harder than I just outlined please go somewhere else". Two years after, I left the organization and George sold his business for 20 million dollars. I guess keeping it simple worked for him.

Action steps this week:

1. Please take an honest look at what your customers are motivated to buy... I mean really listen and ask a lot of questions.

2. What is your current offering? I said current don't go making stuff up on me... (smile).

3. Do your offerings and market motivation match?

4. Make the necessary changes to match what your market is motivated to buy!