Have you ever taken the time to write out the guiding rules that govern your life (or that you’d like to govern your life)? And if you have, have you ever shared them with your people?

As the leader of your business (whether you have zero employees or a thousand is irrelevant), who you are drives your business. As you’ve heard me say before, “As the leader of your business, you are both the high water mark and the bottleneck.” Which means that, if you want to grow your business, you have to grow you first.

For example, if you’re a plodder who likes consensus chances are your entire business is slow to implement. You may be frustrated that others don’e execute fast, but the reality is they’re simply following your example. The way to change that is to change the rule you live by from “I will wait until everyone is on board before I make a decision” to “I will model for my people quick decision-making and execution.”

My guess is that you can quickly see how those two different rules lead to two very different outcomes. One leads to a slow growth or plateaued company, the other to a fast growth company.

In other words, we all have rules that we live by. Whether you’ve formally written them down or not is irrelevant. The way you lead your life (and your business) is driven by a set of rules you have in your head. Which means that some of the rules are positive (leading to the kinds of results you like) and others are rules that need to be changed (because they produce results you don’t like).

So, here’s what I’d suggest (and I’ll share mine with you in the P.S. below). Take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left-hand side, write down the rules you live by that are positive or that you want to affirm. And on the right side, write down the rules you want to change.

1. Rules You Want to Affirm

For example, if you’re successful, then chances are you know that persistence matters. You can probably think through several situations where you know that most people would have given up but you didn’t. And because you didn’t, you succeeded. So one of the rules you’ve lived by that is essential to your success is something like, “I will persist at what I’m doing until I succeed.”

One of the rules I live by is, “I will learn something new every day so I continually multiply my value.” Anyone who’s ever worked with me or known me knows that I’m absolutely passionate about learning. I’m incurably curious by nature, but I also know that if I want to grow my business, I have to grow me first. So, when I created my list, I made sure this rule/value was on my list. I wanted to affirm it daily.

If you’re a religious person (Note: I’m not proselytizing here) my recommendation would be that you live your life congruent with that (whatever your faith-orientation). So you may want to affirm something like this each day (Note: adjust to your spiritual heritage), “I will honor God in all my actions and pray for his guidance throughout the day.” If you’re not religious, no biggie, this rule wouldn’t be on your list. I’m just suggesting ideas for rules someone might want to live by every day.

If you’re an excellence junkie like me, then another rule you may want to affirm would be something like this, “I will make sure that everything I work on has a seal of excellence upon it.”

Now, as you’ve hopefully noticed, when you’re writing up your rules, you want to put them in the future tense, as in,  “I will …” and they should be focused on what will guide your behavior today (and everyday).

2. Rules You Want to Live By

While the first part was encouraging, most of us know that there are a lot of things in our lives that aren’t what we’d like them to be. In that case, one of the ways to change them is to take a current negative rule and turn it into a positive rule for the future.

For example, I frequently find myself writing down tasks that I want to accomplish on a specific day—and then I don’t do them. I wrote them down because I wanted to get them done that day, but I didn’t. So what gives? Well, if I’m honest, it’s because (and I hate to admit this), I ended up choosing to do what I felt like doing at the time, not what I had decided ahead of time to do. I know, embarrassing!

So, when I recently rewrote my “Rules to Live By” I decided to add one that states, “I will act my way into feeling, rather than feel my way into acting.” In other words, I had a problem that was governed by a bad rule (I will do what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it) and it needed to be changed. Now I never wrote down this bad rule. But, if I’m honest, it was the rule I was living by—even though most people who know me think I live a very self-disciplined life—I know better—which is why I created the new rule above.

You can do the same. If you know there’s something in you that holds you back, be honest about it. For example, if you know that you’re a terrible vision-caster and morale builder, then you can create a new rule to guide your life. Maybe you might want to write-up a rule like this, “I will breathe life into the people I work with by dripping vision into every conversation and communication I have with them.”

Now, if you’re wondering where all the payoff is for this, here it is. First, for you. Actually taking the time to write out your rules will probably be an eye-opening experience. Secondly, you’ll move from being more reactionary to being more intentional about the person you want to become. And thirdly, by reading your list every day (I highly recommend each morning), you’ll be able to speed up the process of changing you. And, by definition, the faster your change, the faster your business can grow.

Note: If you’re following the logic of my argument, then you should know by now that this is not a frivolous exercise. The longer you remain stuck, the longer your business remains stuck.

Furthermore, if you have employees, I would highly encourage you to share your list with them as soon as you feel comfortable to do so. Why? Because you’ll be clearly communicating to them what matters to you and you’ll be modeling for them a great process for their own lives. And, similar to you, the better they are, the better your business will be.

So, what are the rules you live by (or should live by)? Make sure you make your list ASAP and review it daily because if you will, it’ll change  you and your business for years to come!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. As promised, here’s my list. There is no perfect list so don’t try to create one. Just get started and add and delete as time goes on. I change mine frequently (remember, some of these are for issues you want to change in your life). So, as of today, February 22, 2012, this is my list. Hopefully it’ll help you get started.

1. I will honor God in all my actions and pray for his guidance throughout the day
2. I will love, honor, encourage, and be there for my wife and daughters
3. I will think big and not small
4. I will act my way into feeling, rather feel my way into acting
5. I will eat healthy and get some form of exercise this day
6. I will persist at what I’m doing until I succeed
7. I will be in control of my emotions, decisions, actions and thoughts—and will not give the power of these over to anyone else
8. I will learn something new this day so I continually multiply my value
9. I will create some form of content that can help add value to someone else’s life
10. I will focus my time and energy on big and important tasks that move the needle, not menial ones
11. I will execute with speed and excellence—and not waste my time needlessly debating, planning or reviewing decisions I’ve already made
12. I will be kind and generous to everyone with whom I interact and add value to their life
13. I will not waste my life watching TV, reading information on the internet or processing email
14. I will not waste a minute worrying about something that happened in the past. It’s over
15. I will give my full attention and effort to whatever I’m engaged in doing at that moment
16. I will live at peace with all men, as far as it depends upon me

Let me know how this exercise goes for you!

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If I told you there were only two numbers that you really needed to know in order to grow your business faster, would you be interested?  In other words, if I could simplify everything for you down to just two numbers that you needed to know in order to attract more customers/clients to your business, would you want to know what those two numbers are?

Now, before I share with you what the two numbers are, I need to let you know that you’ll probably be unimpressed by them. You’ll probably think, “Duh! I’m aware of these. There’s nothing new here!” But before you rush past this post, I want to encourage you to do two things, 1. Read it all the way through because the value isn’t in the numbers, it’s in the application of the numbers and 2. Make sure you actually know what these two numbers are for your business (which will then lead to a third number—based on the first two numbers).

So, are you ready to discover what the two numbers are that can change everything for your business?

Before I share them with you, I have to tell you that I just got off a phone call with another client where I asked him these two numbers and he didn’t know what they were for his business. In other words, don’t just rush by these two numbers, make sure you know them.

1. The average length of time a customer or client remains with you

I ask business owners and leaders this question all the time and I’d guesstimate that over 95% don’t know the answer right off the top of their heads—and that’s a problem. Why? Because you can’t figure out how much you can spend to acquire a customer (that’s the third number we’ll get to) until you know how long a customer will be a customer.

For example, in my previous career where I was the pastor of a large church, I knew that on average, most of the people who attended my church would be there for at least five years. That changed the way I thought about marketing expenses because I knew that, on average, someone who came would attend church for about five years.

Note: I know that a lot of people have a hard time thinking of a church as a business, but it is. It’s more than a business, but it’s still a business. When you’re running a multi-million dollar operation, you have to think like a business person or you end up out of existence.

That said, do you know how long someone remains a customer/client of yours? Are they a one-time purchaser? Or do they last for six months? One year? Three years? Five years? Ten years? If you’re not sure, go back through your client/customer records ASAP.

2. The average amount they’ll spend/invest with you per year

Again, if you want to know how much you can spend to attract a customer, you have to know how much an average customer spends with you each year.

Now, I know a lot of people in professional services businesses have a hard time defining that number because the dollar amounts often fluctuate greatly. For example, an attorney may have some clients that pay $1,000/year and others that spend $50,000 or $200,000/year.

So to make this easy to figure out, just use your aggregate numbers. If your business did $2M last year and you have 200 clients, then the average client is worth $10,000. Pretty simple.

Or back to my old church example, the average church person in America gives $1,000/year to church (Note: that means that a family of four would give $4,000/year). This is a mass aggregate number even though a specific person may give $50,000 or $50 per year. You just don’t know. But, in the aggregate, the averages tend to work out.

Note: If you’d like to break this number down to product/service lines that would be the next level in this conversation. For example, what you’d spend to acquire a $200 customer and a $20,000 customer should be different. But for now, I just want you to make sure you own the concept.

So, how much does an average customer spend with you per year?

Now, why is it so important that you know these two numbers and why can they change everything for your business? Because once you know what these two numbers are, you can multiply them together to figure out what an average customer is worth to you.

For example, in my church illustration above, if the average person who comes to church stays for five years and they give an average of $1,000 per year then the LTV (lifetime value of a customer) is $5,000. Even better, in a church situation, if that person is part of a family of four, that $5,000 is now $20,000. Note: I’m not going to complicate this formula by adding in the value of referrals, which jacks this number up significantly. You get the point.

So, let me ask you—and this is the key question—if you knew that each new customer/client to your business was worth $5,000, how much would you be willing to spend to acquire that customer/client?

You see, because most businesses don’t know the LTV of a customer, they tend to ask the wrong question. The question they ask is, “How LITTLE can we spend to acquire a customer?” When the better question that they SHOULD be asking themselves is, “How MUCH can we spend to acquire a new customer?”

In other words, you don’t want to be the “cheapie” in your industry. You want to be the pacesetter. You want to delight and WOW customers and clients. You want to over-deliver. You want to take their breath away. You want them to say, “I can’t believe what XYZ company just did!” And then you want them to rush out and tell all their friends and family members, “You’ve got to check out XYZ company!”

But you can’t do that apart from knowing your numbers. I’ve run into way too many businesses (and churches) that are losing in the marketing arena because they’re cheap when it comes to client acquisition.

And it doesn’t end at client acquisition. If you knew that your average client is worth $5,000, what would you be willing to spend to retain them? And delight them? And reward them for referrals? Etc.

You see, once you know the two key numbers above, they set you free to spend more money to acquire, retain and delight your customers and clients. And once you start doing that, you’ll see a quick uptick in your marketing efforts. In fact, I think you’ll see that knowing these two numbers really can change everything for your business.

So what are you going to differently (once you know your two numbers) to attract, retain and delight your customers/clients? Be creative. And blow your competitors out of the water! Being cheap is not what you want to be.

To your accelerated success!

P.S. If you have some examples of companies that have blown you away by doing something cool to attract you or retain you as a customer/client, make sure you share them in the comments section below (or click here if you’re reading this by RSS or email).

P.P.S. Obviously, knowing your profit margin is critical to this calculation (i.e. you can’t make unprofitable customers more profitable by attracting more of them). But don’t let more numbers get in the way of you being willing to spend more money to attract more customers (at higher price points).

Related posts:

1. The Missing Ingredient to Most Business Growth and Change Efforts
2. 6 Reasons Why Your Marketing Efforts May Not Be Hitting the Mark
3. Who Do You Need To Become to Grow Your Business This Year?

Everything in your business is a direct reflection of your standards—which means that whatever your standards are, they’re driving your business. For good or for bad, whatever is happening in your business right now ultimately emanates from your standards.

Once you realize this, you’ll hopefully understand why I had to take the picture you can see attached to this post. My wife, Jacquie, and I were driving home from a week’s vacation down in Hilton Head Island the other day when we stopped to get some gas. As I was standing next to the pump, I noticed the name of the business across the street and couldn’t help but laugh, “O.K. Service.”

Now, I’ve seen a lot of bad company names over the years—and this one clearly ranks among one of the worst. Just think about the word, “O.K.” Is there anything positive in that word? O.K. doesn’t even communicate average service. It communicates below average service. Or just good enough to not get sued for malpractice kind of service.

But what kind of message is that to a potential customer? Wouldn’t you want to communicate, “Raving Fan Service” or “Fanatical Service” or “Extraordinary Service” or “Blow Your Socks Off Service” or “So Good You’re Gonna Call Your Mamma and Tell Her About It Service”?

Clearly the owner of that business has set a standard that, “Good enough to not get sued service,” is good enough around here. Now, I don’t know what the economics are for that specific business, but I think I can safely surmise that a better name and a better standard would definitely result in more business for that auto repair shop.

Truthfully, if given the choice, would you prefer to take your car (when it needs to be serviced) to a repair shop with a name like, “O.K. Service” or “So Good You’re Gonna Call Your Mamma and Tell Her About It Service”? The later will win all day long. In other words, if that business owner wants to grow his business faster, he needs to upgrade his service standards.

But enough about him, what about you? What are your service standards? And even more importantly, have you outgrown the standards you used to have?

For example, excellence is a moving target. What is excellent for a business with two employees is not the same as for a business with twenty employees (or two hundred employees)? For a two person company, a basic Quickbooks template invoice is fine. But for a twenty or two-hundred person company you and I would probably expect something more if the standard is excellence.

For a start-up company a 24-hour response time is reasonable. But for an established company with thirty or more employees, you and I would probably expect more.

For a solopreneur to send a proposal in a folder from Staples with an ink jet printed contract is acceptable, but for a 25- person consultancy to do the same, you and I would expect more.

In other words, as our businesses grow, we need to constantly go back and ask ourselves, “Are we at a point where we need to upgrade our standards?” Most businesses hold on to their old standards way too long (especially those where the owner bootstrapped the business).

On the other hand, if you’re a smaller business and you want to compete with the “big boys” maybe it’s time you upgraded your standards to compete with them. No where is it written that a small business needs to be small-minded.

If you want to grow your business faster, maybe it’s time to upgrade your standards. Why? Because the standards we set, drive everything in our businesses. And the good news about that is that when we work at a higher level we tend to get higher level work.

So what standards do you need to start upgrading today in order to get to the next level for your business?

To your accelerated success!

P.S. This is a great staff discussion as to what your current standards are (not the stated ones, but the actual ones). And what do we need to change to get to the next level.

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When you have a big project staring you in the face, what do you do? Or what do your people do? When you see a project like …

• Create a new revenue stream
• Open a new location
• Create and launch a new product
• Design a new employee performance review process
• Hire a new CFO
• Overhaul our marketing approach
• Improve customer retention by 50%
• Reduce operating expenses by 20%

How do you respond? If you’re like most people, chances are … you find something else to do, right? Big projects tend to overwhelm most of us because we already have too much on our plates.

In fact, let me just ask you, what big projects do you have on your list right now that you keep putting off? What things do you know need to be fixed in your business that you’re not taking care of right now? How about your people? I’m sure there are several.

So, what can you do to move those projects forward? My favorite advice to solving this problem comes from an author, Annie Lamont, who wrote one of my favorite books on writing called, Bird by Bird. The title derives itself from an experience her brother had when he was ten years old. Annie writes,

Isn’t that great advice? Annie’s brother had a big project. He was given three months to complete it (sounds like a quarterly goal/objective). And just like most of us, he put it off until it was almost too late—which led to him being overwhelmed by the immensity of the task and his lack of time to complete it (sound familiar?).

Fortunately, he had a great dad who simply reminded him that the key to completing anything is to just focus on one part of the task (“Bird by bird”). Or, to use David Allen’s phraseology, to simply focus on the next actionable task.

In other words, while it helps to see a big project as a whole, the problem with treating a big project as a big project is that it tends to hinder action. Yes, in it’s completeness, a big project may be comprised of 10,000 tasks. But task #10,000 will never be reached if we don’t start, bird by bird, with the next actionable step.

For example, right now I’m getting ready to publish my first book. Writing a book is a task in and of itself, but getting it published and marketed is a whole different animal. Overwhelmed, I started breaking it down to bird by bird steps. Search elance.com and review the portfolios of book cover artists. Contact cover artist to get bid. Select vendor. Write out cover text. Create publisher name. Reserve domain name. Create book website. Find proofreader. Make final edits. Find publisher. Yada Yada Yada. You get the idea. Even at the bird by bird level, the project seemed overwhelming.

So then I had to do the, “Okay, but what’s the next actionable step?” And the answer was, “Search elance.com.” Bingo. Action taken. Project moved forward.

Now, I’m under no illusion that you don’t know this idea or concept of small steps or next actionable tasks. However, my frequent observation of owners and entrepreneurs is that they (and their people) just don’t practice it that often. Big projects remain on the same lists quarter after quarter and year after year. Problems that should have been solved a long time ago aren’t. Why? Not because people don’t know the concept, they just don’t practice it.

So, back to your big projects that aren’t moving forward right now, why aren’t they moving forward? Is it because they still seem, “Big?” Maybe, just maybe, you need a bird by bird moment. Maybe you simply need to ask yourself today, “What’s the next actionable task?” and then do it. In fact, why don’t you do that right now. Before you do anything else, take one step toward completing that big project that’s been sitting on your “to do” list for way too long. You’ll be glad you did!

To your accelerated success!

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When an employee, or spouse, or even an enemy questions you, how do you respond? Do you tend to get defensive? Do you go on the attack? Do you retreat? How do you respond?

Over the years, whenever I’ve watched leaders experience a negative comment or accusation, I’ve usually had to coach most of them on learning to not be defensive—or to not go on the attack. Both being defensive and going on the attack are poor leadership choices that damage anyone’s standing as a leader and cost them “leadership cash.”

Even worse, they both set terrible models for how others should respond in a similar situation. If you go on the defensive when an employee critiques you, why should you be surprised when they do the same thing when you critique them? Remember, “People (including children) do what people see.”

So, if you’d like to turn that around so that you’re calm, cool and collected when someone critiques or criticizes you, here are three ideas to help you.

1. Make sure you always make sound decisions that reek of integrity

One of my favorite maxims is,

If you know you’ve made a good decision, based on all the data you had at the time, and you did that with full integrity—not cutting any corners, not telling half-truths or outright lies, etc.—then what do you have to be afraid of? Answer: Absolutely nothing!

The only reason to be afraid (and hence the need to be defensive or to go on the attack to deflect attention from the issue at hand) is because you didn’t make a good decision based on operating with full integrity.

So, if you don’t have a commitment to always making sound decisions, based on the data available, and with full integrity, then make that commitment today. If you reek of integrity, there’s never any reason to be afraid.

Part of the cost of being a leader is that “people” will frequently question your decisions and judgment. So what? It happens to all of us. Why? Because “everyone” will never agree with every decision you make. Opinions will differ—and that’s okay.

If someone wants to question you because they have a difference of opinion, that’s fine. Why should that bother you? Differing opinions is why we have different people on teams. But as long as you made a sound decision, based on the data you had at the time, and you made it with full integrity, you have no reason to be defensive. It’s just a difference of opinion.

2. Make sure you don’t confuse your worth and value with what you do

This is a huge one. One of the primary reasons why so many people become defensive when someone else questions them or their judgment is because they’ve tied their decisions/judgments/actions/job with their self worth—and that’s a problem.

Why? Because your worth is not dependent upon what you do. You have infinite worth because of whose image you’ve been made in. When you forget that and tie your worth to what you do, then any critique or question or challenge feels like a threat to who you are—which is why most people respond so poorly when someone questions or critiques them. It’s not the question or the critique that’s the problem. It’s how the person hearing the question or critique processes the question/critique.

For example, let’s say two of your employees come to your office and question a decision you made about a third employee. If you see your worth as a human being tied to the decisions you make as the owner of your business (i.e. I’m worthy as a human being because I started a business five years ago that now has 10 employees and does $2.4M in revenue), then you’ll see their questions as a threat to your worth as a human being—which is a much bigger issue than two of your employees questioning a leadership decision you made to fire another employee.

In other words, if someone is just questioning a decision, there’s no need to be defensive. But if they’re questioning your worth—and you want to continue to feel like you’re a worthy individual (and you’ve tied your worth to your performance as a business leader)—then it’s understandable why you’d want to defend yourself.

So, don’t do that. If you ever find yourself being defensive or going on the attack, may I encourage you to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this? Have I just turned a question into an attack on my worth and value?”

3. Make sure you choose to be humble

Now, don’t blow by this point. Humility is not about weakness nor about being milquetoast. Humility is about strength. It’s about being confident in who you are and who you’re not. It’s about having a right evaluation of what you’re good at and what you’re not. It’s not about thinking less of yourself, it’s about not taking yourself so seriously.

If you’re prideful and think that every decision you make has to be right/perfect, then you’ll struggle with being defensive and going on the attack when others attack you. But if you’re humble (i.e. you realize you’re a human being who isn’t God and therefore isn’t omniscient) then you’ll have no problem with admitting you made a mistake—if you made one. And if you didn’t, no problem there either.

This is the beauty of choosing to be a humble person, you become unflappable. People know they can’t get under your skin by attacking you—so they give up. At the same time, your people will feel they can question your decisions (when appropriate) because they know you’ll listen and won’t attack them. Why? Because you have nothing at stake.

So if you want to be a better leader, stop being defensive or going on the attack when someone questions you or challenges a decision you made (this works at home as well as at work). Model a leader who’s “presidential.” Be calm, cool and collected. Listen. Reflect back. And be confident.

If you made a good solid decision, based on the data you had at the time, and you made that decision without compromising your integrity, and if you haven’t tied your worth to your work, and if you’ve chosen to be a humble person (not a weak person), then you have nothing to fear. Someone is just voicing a question (or critique or challenge or difference of opinion). Nothing more. Nothing less. And certainly, nothing to get defensive about!

May I encourage you to make these three choices consistently. You just might be surprised at how much they’ll make you a better leader.

To your accelerated success!

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How often do you create goals and plans that never come to fruition? If you’re like most owners, entrepreneurs and service professionals the answer is … “More often that I care to admit.” So what makes you think this year will be different?

By now, you’ve already announced to your people a set of goals for this year. Maybe you even did this at a big all company event. And maybe you’ve even had your plan for this year printed on big sheets of paper and laminated them. But what comes next?

If you’re like most small business leaders, the answer is … “The next project!” Exactly! And that’s the problem. The problem is that most of us are guilty of announcing goals/plans/initiatives/change efforts/projects and then, as soon as we announce them, moving on to the next project.

What’s the problem with that? Answer: Everything! Why? Because people and systems don’t change that fast. If you want real change to occur, it takes a consistent focused effort over a long period of time in order to make that change become a part of your culture.

For example, let’s say one of your goals for this year is to increase your closing percentage from 10% to 30%. Sounds ambitious. If you have the same number of prospects in your funnel as last year, that one change could  triple your business. So what do most owners do? Exactly. They announce the goal. Then they bring in a sales trainer for a two-day sales training workshop. And then, they move on to the next item on their to do list.

But what do you think the probability is that at the end of the year, your conversion rate will triple from 10% to 30%? Very little. Why? Because there was no discipline attached to the goal. Coming up with a goal or an idea or a plan and announcing it is the easy part. It’s the fun part. But creating an idea and announcing it does not make an idea come true. Discipline does.

So, if you’d like to make your goals/plans/dreams/initiatives/change efforts/projects come true this year, here are three ideas to help you make that happen.

1. Think Months, Quarters and Years—not days and weeks.

Anything significant (and you should only be involved in significant work) can’t be completed in a day. Nor can it just be announced. Anything significant needs to be focused on by you, as the head of your business, for a lengthy period of time. So instead of just announcing a change, you need to think about riding it for months.

For example, let’s say you announce a goal this year of systemizing your business (good for you). But instead of just announcing it, what if this year you were to talk about it at every weekly staff meeting? What if you were to build it into each staff member’s goals for this quarter? What if you were to discuss systems each month at your all staff meeting? What if you personally inspected (on occasion) your top staff member’s systems? And what if you did this every month for the next six months? Do you think your people would get it? Absolutely!

Let’s be honest, most of our goals and plans don’t come to fruition because we don’t institute the kind of focus and discipline necessary to turn them into reality. Nor do our people take them as seriously as they should. But when we stay on message for months at a time—everyone gets what matters!

So, how are you doing at staying on message for months at a time?

Note: I’m always amazed at business leaders who will pay someone like me to come in for a couple of hours to train their staff on something—and then they don’t ride their staff about that issue for the next few months. This makes no sense to me. No staff team changes in a few hours. So if you want to get the most out of your training dollars, this same principle holds!

2. Think Modeling!

As every parent knows, kids do what they see more than what they’re told. So, if you want to see your plans and goals come true, then you need to make sure you’re modeling the change first. If your goal is to engage more with clients, then you need to be the pacesetter. Every meeting you need to share something you learned from a client (i.e. modeling the behavior). And then you need to model that you’re changing behavior or systems or content based on client/customer feedback.

Why? Because people do what people see. Back in my old pastoral ministry days, we used to say, “If you want your people to bleed, then you need to hemorrhage.” In other words, if you want your people to do something, you have to do model doing it more than what you expect to see in them.

For example, if you want your top team to talk with three clients/customers per week, then maybe you should shoot for five each week. Why? Because if you want your people to bleed, you need to hemorrhage. If you want to see change occur in your business, then, as Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

So how are you doing at modeling what you want?

3. Cast Vision For It

A corollary to the statement above is, “People do what people see.” If people can’t “see” what the change looks like, then they can’t create it. And, despite what we may like to think, most people leak vision within minutes of us sharing it—which is why I keep saying to leaders, “You can never cast vision too much.”

Week after week, in emails, meetings, one-on-one conversations, etc. you need to keep casting vision for the change you want to see. For example, if you want your people to create systems, then you need to consistently share examples with them of people who have created systems—and how those systems are making it easier on the people who created them. Cast vision for how it frees up time. Cast vision for how it’s creating better client relationships. Cast vision for how it’s making training more effective. Cast vision for how much easier their work will be when they actually create the systems they need to create, etc.

Why? Because the more you cast vision and you show them how they’re becoming part of something better, the more they’ll actually complete the goals you’ve set. Take away vision, and they’ll revert to what they’ve always done.

So, how are you doing at casting vision for the change or goals you’ve set?

If you want to ensure that the goals and plans that you laid out for this year become a reality, then you’ll definitely want to start using these three keys week in and week out. Stay on message for months, model the behavior you want, and continually cast vision for it. There are other things you can do, but these three are a great place to start.

So, what will you do differently this coming month to make sure that the goals you’ve set become a reality long before 12/31?

To your accelerated success!

P.S. If you have some other ideas about how to ensure that your goals come true this year, make sure you share them in the comments section below (or click HERE if you’re reading this by RSS or email)

Related posts:

1. Drip Vision Every Day
2. Three Keys to Making Better Business Decisions
3. The Two Keys to Changing The Culture of Your Business (or Organization)

If you’re like most of the owners, entrepreneurs and service providers I know, chances are you have a lot of things you want to accomplish this year, correct? Absolutely! You wouldn’t be in charge if you didn’t.

However, if you’re also like most of the people I know, I can also guarantee one other thing about your list of things you want to accomplish … most of them aren’t dated. Or, if they are, they’re probably dated by the end of the quarter (“This is a Q1 priority” or “This is a Q3 priority”).

And therein is the problem. If there isn’t a specific date when something has to be accomplished (or if all the Q1 priorities are due on 3/31), the chances of that item (or those priorities) being accomplished is greatly diminished. Now, in case you’re tempted to rush by this post thinking, “Hey, that’s a pretty simple idea!” may I encourage you to look over your list of things you want to accomplish this year and see how many are dated!

I look over people’s goal lists (and strategic plans) frequently and this one “simple idea” is violated all the time. In fact here are some simple goals and tactics that often aren’t dated.

• Launch a new product
• Hire a new staff person
• Write a book
• Obtain five speaking engagements
• Update our website
• Create a new opt-in
• Enter a new market
• Start a new service
• Upgrade (or update) our database
• Hold three customer “rush” campaigns
• Hold two customer focus groups, etc.

You get the idea. It happens all the time. Ideas are generated. But they rarely get dated. So, instead of getting something done in the next two weeks, it happens, maybe, in six to twelve MONTHS.

But what if you got in the habit of dating things when you first created them? What if you said, “Okay, we know our website needs to be updated. We’ve talked about it forever. So, let’s see. Today is January 24th. Let’s have this project completed by February 24th. Just about anything can be completed in 30 days.” Then you can work backwards.

Or, instead of saying, “I want to launch a new product this year.” What if you said, “I’m going to launch a new product this quarter on March 20th (Note: not 3/31). So, I want the product completed by March 1st and the first marketing pieces to go out on March 6th.” If you did that, don’t you think you’d get more work done faster? Absolutely!

You see, the great thing about deadlines is that they create action. It’s no different than the person who in January books a cruise for April 7th and “all of a sudden” starts losing weight after years of not being able to. Deadlines incite action (if you care about meeting them. If you don’t care, that’s a whole different conversation).

Note: This deadline idea can also be used during the course of a day. If you say, “I need to write an employee review today,” who knows if it’ll get done or how long it’ll take. But, if you say, “Today, I need to complete Joe’s review in under one hour before 10:00 a.m.” I bet you’ll get it done (i.e. more work done faster).

So, take a look at your list of things you want to get done this year (or this quarter or this month or even this week). How many of them are dated? If you’re really serious about getting them done, date them.

And, if you want to take this idea up a notch here are a few more ideas

• Make the dates public (i.e. tell someone else or post them somewhere public)
• Challenge yourself to pick a date sooner than you think the project can be completed by (if you think you can get something done in four weeks, pick a date three weeks out).
• Hire someone now who’s needed at a later phase (for ex. a videographer for a shoot in two weeks even though you haven’t started writing your video script yet).

For some reason, maybe it’s because of our educational backgrounds, most of us entrepreneurial leaders keep looking for some kind of new or novel ideal/tactic that will make us instantly more productive—when sometimes the very best ideas are those we’ve known all along … like adding deadlines to tasks. Seems like such an obvious solution. But it’s not, because it’s rarely practiced. So, don’t make that mistake. If you want to get more work done faster, unleash the power of deadlines into your work every day, every week, every month, every quarter and every year. You’ll be glad you did!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. To make this infinitely practical, pick one project you’ve wanted to get done that hasn’t gotten started yet. Pick a date for it to be completed that’s sooner than you normally would pick. Then tell someone  when you’re doing to complete it by.

P.P.S. If you have some other productivity ideas that you think others of us might benefit from, make sure you add them in the comments section below (or, if you’re reading this by RSS or email, click HERE to post your ideas in the comments section).

Related posts:

1. Three Habits to Grow Your Business Faster
2. Five Quick Time Saving Tips for Busy Executives
3. Are You Letting the Calendar Hinder Your Behavior?

The good news is, you want to attract more clients/customers! You want to encourage your current customers to buy from you more frequently? And you want to encourage them to buy more expensive packages of your services and/or products.

The bad news is, if you’re like most owners and entrepreneurs, your marketing efforts aren’t yielding the kinds of results you want. You’d like to see double-digit increases, but you’re not. So, what’s going on? Well, there are six very clear and common marketing mistakes that almost every small business makes when they’re engaged in some kind of marketing campaign.

So, what are the six mistakes? Well, here are the six I see happening over and over again. Note: At the end I’ll give you a tool to help you avoid making all six of them.

1. They lack a clear purpose

Whenever I ask a business owner, “What’s the objective of this marketing tactic or campaign?” I usually get an answer with either a lot of hemming and hawing (I’m not really sure) or a long list of objectives (I want it to build our brand, attract more customers, attract more repeat customers, generate leads and solve the world’s energy crisis :-).

But a marketing tactic (like a direct mail piece or an opt in page or a radio spot) can’t do all of those things in one fell swoop. Now, it is possible to have multiple purposes (for example, a website for your business or organization), but there ought to be one clear dominant one objective (for example, to generate leads over branding, education or credibility).

So, before you ever launch a marketing campaign, make sure you’re absolutely clear on what your mission is or else you’ll be guilty of mistake number one.

2. They aren’t focused on a clear target market

In other words, way too many marketing tactics are “focused” on the everyone market. “If you’re alive (i.e. breathing) and have enough money to buy this product, then you’re in our target market,” is a rather common marketing mistake.

Even within “niches” this can be a problem. “If you’re a realtor” (or an attorney or a physician etc.) is still too general. Whereas, “If you’re an emergency room physician in a small rural hospital and you’re dealing with X problem …” then you have a clear target market.

Regardless of how communication occurs, the “Who” is always more important than the “What.” So, if you’re not crystal clear on who your target market is, then you’ll want to start here and clearly define them. In fact, I highly recommend that you create a target market profile (you can get a Target Market template by click here).

The more you’re clear on your target market’s wants, needs, hurts, pains, desires, longings, etc. the better your marketing will be.

3. They don’t have a clear and compelling message focused on the desires of their target market

The first problem is that most businesses use marketing tactics that focus on them as the company (Here’s who we are, what we do and why you ought to buy from us). And the big problem with that approach is that potential customers don’t care about you.

The second problem is that, post Genesis 2, everyone is motivated by self-interest. All they care about is themselves, not you. Realizing that, you should always focus all of your attention on your target market and their needs, wants, desires, etc. Or to put it another way, when you craft an offer, it needs to be an offer that they want. Just because you offer something that you believe they need, doesn’t mean they’ll buy it.

So, whenever you’re crafting an offer make sure you ask questions like, “Does my offer hit on an urgent desire of my target market?” “Is my offer clear?” “Is it compelling?” If you get a “No!” to any of those questions, it’s time to head back to the drawing board.

4. They haven’t selected the right media to accomplish their mission

What amazes me over and over again, is how frequently someone will choose a tactic (I need a Facebook Fan Page or I need to send out a newsletter or I need to start a podcast on iTunes) without asking and answering the more important questions (like ‘What’s my mission?” “Who’s my market?” And, “What’s the right message to send to my market to achieve my mission?”).

Owners and entrepreneurs love to jump to the media question, which is why one my frequent questions to them is, “So, what’s your objective/mission?” Why? Because the first three Ms (Mission, Market, and Message) have to be considered before selecting the right media (the fourth M—note: the order does matter).

Why? Because different people connect with different media. For example, if you’re trying to reach people in the C suite, Facebook probably isn’t your best strategy. If you’re trying to generate leads, an opt in page may be better than a brochure web site. If you’re going after high net worth individuals, Groupon (or the old school Val-Pak) probably isn’t your best option.

In other words, the choice of which media you should use, should always be made in light of the first three Ms, NOT BEFORE you’ve asked them.

5. They engage in one-step marketing vs. using a multi-step approach

No one gets married on the first date—but that’s how way too many businesses operate. They send out one direct mail piece. They send out one email. They record one radio spot. They make one Facebook post. They follow-up with a referral prospect one time. Etc. But that’s not how most people buy.

Most people need time to make a decision. So the smart marketer always designs their marketing approach around campaigns (not one-offs). They don’t think of one (or even two) touches. They think of 7, 15, 21, or 52 touches. They invest a lot of time and energy into coming up with creative ways to communicate and educate their prospects so that when the time comes and the prospect is ready to buy, they’ll think of the persons who’s been in contact with them—and educating them—all along.

So, if you want to be a better marketer, never engage in one-off marketing. Make sure you create campaigns with multiple touches that will woo your prospects over time. Note: I call this M the Moment (when and how often should you communicate your message to your market).

6. They don’t allocate enough money to really succeed

Part of the reason why this problem exists is because most owners and entrepreneurs don’t know their numbers (Note: If you’re not sure what numbers to keep, you can get a FREE six-part video course (one part of which covers this question) by going to www.facebook.com/WiredToGrow).

When an owner doesn’t know their numbers, it’s hard to make good marketing decisions. For example, if you don’t know how much a customer is worth, how can you decide how much you should spend to attract one? If the average customer spends $1,000/year with you and they remain a customer for five years, they’re worth $5,000 to you (from an economic standpoint).

Now, if the average customer is worth $5,000 to you, and let’s say your profit rate is 40%, that means that the each customer (on average) contributes $2,000 of profit directly to your bottom line. If that’s true, how much would you be willing to spend to attract that kind of customer? Even better, if your average customer gives you five referrals that actually lead to five more customers, that means that their profitability to you is $12,000. Once you realize that, how much more would you be willing to spend to attract a new customer like that?

In other words, if you don’t know what your numbers are, you can’t make wise decisions about your marketing. However once you do know, you can. And my guess is that once you get clear on your numbers, you’ll begin to realize that you can spend more than you currently are so you can accelerate the rate of growth of your business (or organization)

So, there you have it. You now know six reasons why most marketing efforts fail. How did you do? Which mistakes do you tend to make? If you’d like to avoid them, may I encourage you to download a pdf I created called The Six M Marketing Tactic Guide. If you’ll diligently use this sheet, you’ll avoid all six of these mistakes. And how much could that be worth to you? My guess, a bundle. So make sure you download and start using it right now!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. In addition, make sure you get your FREE six-part video series on the Ten Most Common Marketing Mistakes Most Small Business Owners Make by going to www.facebook.com/WiredToGrow

Related posts:

1. The 10 Most Common Marketing Mistakes
2. Are You Getting The Optimal Results Possible From Your Marketing Efforts?
3. Four Keys to Generating More Leads

Ever get frustrated with your employees/staff because they’re not all on the same page? Chances are you have—in fact, every leader I’ve ever met has felt that way at one time or another. So, here’s my question for you, who’s fault is that?

Now, I ask that question, not to be mean, but because I think it gets right to the heart of the problem. In other words, I frequently hear leaders complain about their people and how they’re all doing their own thing, they’e not in alignment, they’re not executing the strategic plan, etc. But I rarely hear leaders say, “And it’s my fault.”

Yet isn’t that the essence of what you and I are supposed to do as leaders? Aren’t we supposed to be the ones who set the direction and cast a compelling vision to our people? Aren’t we supposed to pick the right people and coach/equip them to make sure they can successfully complete the mission? Aren’t we supposed to motivate and inspire our teams to produce great results? Aren’t we supposed to ensure that everyone and everything is in alignment so we can complete the plan we set? Absolutely!

So, if our teams aren’t all rowing in the same direction, who’s responsibility is that?

Now, if you’re ready and willing to pick up that mantle of responsibility, may I encourage you to engage in a couple of behaviors that can help ensure that your team will keep rowing in the same direction.

1. Make sure you have a crystal clear picture of your preferred future in your own head

Back in my old preaching days, we had a saying, “If it’s a mist in the pulpit, it’s a fog in the pew,” meaning that if the preacher (read, “Leader”) isn’t clear about what they’re saying, there’s no way anyone else will. Yet when I ask business and other leaders what they want to accomplish this year, you’d be surprised at how unclear most of their answers are.

When I ask, ‘So, what’s your vision for the next year (or three years)?” I rarely get a clear answer. When I ask, “Okay, well, what do you want to be true of your business (or organization) by 12/31 of this year?” I usually get back bits and pieces of some things they’d like to have happen … but it’s rarely ever a very clear concise picture.

So, if it’s a mist in their mind, is there any wonder it’s a fog in their people’s minds?

Basically, if you can’t say right off the top of your head, “Our vision for this year is … and the top three things we plan to accomplish are 1. 2. 3.” then you know there’s no way that all of your people are going to be headed in the same direction. So make sure it’s crystal clear in your head.

2. Make sure you cast that vision (and hopefully it’s a compelling vision) over and over and over again

Why? Because people leak vision. Within 48 hours of you sharing your vision, virtually everyone you shared your vision with has forgotten it. That’s why I say to leaders like you, all the time, you can’t overcast vision.

In other words, you should leak vision into every conversation, every message, every letter, every meeting, etc. Your people should be sick and tired of you saying, “This is where we’re headed!” And then you should cast it again.

Remember, as soon as your people go back to their work (after you’ve cast your vision), they’re minds return to what they have to accomplish. They’re looking at their to do list, not your vision. They’re focused on their next action, their next email, their next call, their next project, etc. The last thing most of your people are thinking about is where your company is headed.

And that’s the problem. When people start focusing on just their next activity, they start heading in different directions—in most cases, not intentionally. It just happens. And 10 tasks down the list, they’re headed in a completely different direction than they were supposed to.

Which is why you have to keep casting vision and reminding your people where they’re going. After all, isn’t that what you’re supposed to be doing as a leader?

3. Make sure you create short, simple, easy metrics to keep everyone focused on heading in the same direction

Some management maxims aren’t worth remembering, but some are. This one is, “What get’s inspected, get’s done!” Unfortunately, most businesses don’t have a short, simple, and easy to keep set of metrics that everyone can see all the time—and that’s a problem.

I’ve worked with businesses that will go over 50+ metrics during their meetings (which really isn’t operational). While I’ve worked with other businesses that haven’t kept any—and both are wrong. Note: This doesn’t mean that a business itself shouldn’t have 50 metrics because different parts of the business are measuring different things. I’m talking about the business as a whole. What are the key metrics that the company, as a whole, broadcasts?

If you want to keep everyone on your team rowing in the same direction, then you may want to keep everyone apprised of a very small set of metrics (maybe three to five max). Even better, if you can get everyone focused on one issue and keep one metric in front of them for a period of time (let’s say a quarter), that’s even better.

For example, if your people aren’t asking for referrals, you could make “Referrals asked” as the main metric and keep it up on a board for all to see until it turns around. Or if your team’s average response rate is too long, you could make that the key metric. Or, if you’re not generating enough leads, “Leads” or “Leads generated” could become the number.

Whatever metrics you want to use, my encouragement, if you want to keep everyone rowing in the same direction, is to make sure that number is small (maximum of five), otherwise people get overwhelmed and the sheer number of numbers causes them to get that glazed look in their eyes.

4. Make sure you enforce the vision and hold people accountable to being in alignment

This is where the rubber meets the road. After coaching leaders for a couple of decades now, I’ve watched way too many leaders tolerate poor performance or lack of alignment or disregard for direction or bad attitudes or lack of followership, etc.—and for way too long. In essence, they’ve created the culture that they don’t like—a culture where it’s okay for their people to not be alignment or to disregard orders or to not follow through or to not execute on the strategic plan, etc.

In other words, it’s not enough to simply cast vision and say, “This is the direction.” Real leadership always involves real management—ensuring compliance and alignment. Note: I’m not advocating being a jerk here. Management is about setting expectations and coaching, it’s about encouragement and providing resources. etc. But it’s also about ensuring that everyone is in alignment with the vision and culture of the business.

And when a leader tolerates one person doing their own thing, or one person disregarding the vision or one person heading in a different direction—all without consequence, that’s where the whole system breaks down.

In other words, if you want to make sure everyone on your team is rowing in the same direction, you have to make sure  everyone is. And if they’re not, then you need to make sure you bring them back in alignment. No one else can really do that. That’s your job. You’re the leader.

So, how are you doing? Do you have a crystal clear vision of where you’re going? Can you quickly list the top three things for this year (or quarter)? Are you casting vision every day? Is it compelling? Do you have a short set of metrics (no more than five) that you’re using to keep everyone focused on the plan for this year? And are you quick to call people out who are out of alignment? Or do you tend to tolerate non-compliance way too long?

If you want to keep your team rowing in the same direction, I’d encourage you to start with these four ideas and then build on them. You’ll be glad you did!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. If you have some additional ideas of how to keep teams headed in the same direction, make sure you add your ideas in the comments section below (or click HERE if you’re reading this by RSS or email).

Related posts:

1. Drip Vision Every Day
2. How to Write a Vision Statement
3. Is Your Strategic Plan Actually Strategic?

If you’d like to find out what the ten most common marketing mistakes are that small business leaders make—mistakes that are costing them (and possibly you) literally thousands of dollars every month, you can find out by doing something very simple—and it’s my FREE gift to you!

I just created a Facebook Fan Page for my company at www.Facebook.com/WiredToGrow

And in order to build my fan base quickly, I created a six part video series with over an hour of pure content to help you get more of what you want (that is, more money in your pocket!). In fact, here’s a screen shot of the first video.

So don’t waste any time. Head on over to www.Facebook.com/WiredToGrow

Click on the “Like” button at the top of the page and you’ll automatically gain access to the six videos and the course book.

I’m absolutely convinced that if you use the course book I created for you, listen to the videos, take good notes, and apply what you learn, you could easily put thousands of extra dollars in your pocket this year.

So, don’t wait another second. Hop on over to www.Facebook.com/WiredToGrow and click “Like”!

You’ll be glad you did!

To your accelerated success

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