Coaching is a hot subject. It seems like the most unlikely people are now getting some form of coaching: personal training, personal development, specialized skills, and coaching to increase your business performance or to build your human resource assets. But, do you, the senior manager (owner) need a coach?

Your response to this question may depend on your sports experience and if the memory of being coached was a rewarding part of your life. Your answer may depend on whether you played team sports or an individual sport. As we all know, a golf coach’s style and personality can be miles apart from the demeanor of a head football coach. If you were gifted enough to play both team and individual sports, you have an advantage knowing what coaching style you enjoyed the most. Although there may be a good analogy between sports and business such as teamwork and winning at the expense of another team or player, the crossover of applying sports coaching techniques to business seems to fall short.

Instead of a coach, maybe what you need is a trusted confidant to help you think through the issues and challenges you face in your business. Perhaps you want the accountability aspect of a coaching relationship, but really do not want someone to tell you what you need to do. We at GM Outsource believe project providers can help fill the key aspects of a traditional coaching role by helping you succeed where you, the senior manager, are the coach.

It is often ‘lonely at the top’ because of not having someone that you can talk to regarding what you need to do to succeed. Regardless of your existing support system, having someone that is only interested in helping you succeed and supporting you along the way may be the coach you want. Project providers can help fill this role. Enjoy the game!! –  GMO

Think about what makes a successful restaurant. We know they have one of the highest capital requirements for start up, some of the lowest margins of all business types, have the highest failure rates, and are subject to the whims of consumer subjectivity and prevailing health fads. The ones that do make it figure out how to deliver good tasting food on a consistent basis within a budget of their target market. And, most importantly, they can adapt quickly when their customers require them to change. Applying a successful restaurant business model to your responsibility is, pun intended, food for thought.

Let’s review the components of a successful restaurant system. It starts with the passionate chef and/or the business owner. Passion for the business and the passion to serve customers is always the first component. Highest quality ingredients, well-defined recipes, and skilled (and highly engaged) kitchen workers, working with quality equipment (technology) in an orderly focused delivery process, creates the great tasting and well presented dish. Of course this product result is ordered and delivered by pleasant and efficient wait staff in an environment designed to create the desired eating experience – consistently – every meal at any hour every day. The final result is ‘positive word of mouth’ from customers – passed on to their family, friends, and social network. Success.

Now, think about your organization and how you stack up with these components. Start with your customers, or the future customers you would like to have, and work backwards in the system. Adopt a cooking school mindset to your existing delivery process and analyze your recipes (formula, method) that create your end product and or service. Create your own standards for each component and focus on proven delivery systems that supply consistency every time. Only the highest quality products, delivered with friendly helpful service, and at a competitive price point will win the day. So, put on your chef’s hat, pick a ‘low hanging fruit’ project, and contact one of the project providers to help you create your own cooking school. Bon Appetite.

GMO

With the rapid change and disrupting influence of the recent financial implosion on the marketplace, increasing sales is often a top of mind solution to decreasing revenues. Understanding how to create more sales is often found by understanding what type of sales organization you now have versus the one that will be effective to meet your sales objectives. Expecting your existing sales efforts to change by edict will only create frustration within your organization.

The majority of sales people are really service providers and fit into the ‘farmer’ category. These organizations expect their sales people to ‘plant seeds’ (by following up on leads or an internal order system), cultivate ongoing relationships by ‘weeding and watering’ their existing clients, with the expectation of ‘harvesting’ sales in the future. These organizations usually rely on ‘push’ marketing activities to 3rd party vendors or direct purchasers.

The second sales organization category is ‘herders’ or ranchers. These salespeople continually move their existing customers to new and improved products and services. Retail sales people have their customers ‘herded’ into their stores by ‘pull’ marketing activities that offer inventory and incentives to buy now.

The third category is what is needed in this economy, the hunters. These sales people are always on the ‘hunt’ to find new customers, ways to get existing customers to buy more, and/or innovative new products and or services to leverage their influence in new markets. Hunters rely on a variety of prospecting methods including cold calling to search for ‘game’. They also rely on ‘baiting’ methods to get their quarry to respond and often resort to ‘ambush’ techniques when the game ‘comes to water’.

Expecting farmers or herders to become hunters just because the market place changes is leadership naivety, especially when compensation and structure has been created to reinforce the system they have been rewarded for in the past. This would be like taking your plow horse to the races and expecting them to win. Conversely, racehorses cannot be expected to plow the south forty. (As a side note – race horses are often the hardest to control – they bite, kick, and often do not play well with other horses). Hunters often have a special mindset and often enjoy the ‘kill’ as much as the reward for bringing in the business. They are the warriors in the business world and are the most challenging of sales forces to manage. But, we need them now more than ever and a great project for seniors is creating more hunters without disrupting your existing business. Winning in the market place requires the best sales and marketing organization and figuring all this out is great food for thought. Enjoy the path.

GMO

The many sources of inspiration are created by other human beings. These might be the people that have helped us through life, like our family, friends, and influential authority figures. Most often, they are people that have created something of value that is passed down through time. They write the books that inspire us; they make the movies and television we watch, they write and play the music we love. They have invented new products and services that give us the quality of life we enjoy. In reality, when these people are interviewed about their creations, they often admit they are deeply gratified when their work helps a complete stranger in need. Simply put, the best form of inspiration for each of us is the feeling we get when we inspire others. With this goal in mind, this section is designed to share sources of inspiration to help all of us on our business journey. We can only share inspiration sources we know about. We welcome you sharing your sources for the benefit of future readers. Drop us an email and we will collect them for future posts. You may never know how your story will inspire someone else. If it has inspired you, there is a good chance there are others that will benefit – that is the way inspiration works, one human to another.

GMO

When I ask a businessperson this question, they usually answer from a personal perspective and I get answers like the ones just mentioned. Once in awhile, they tell me reading business magazines such as Forbes, Fortune, or Fast Company inspires them. Sometimes, they receive inspiration from other business associates involved in associations and other networking groups. I have never received a response that identifies my first and foremost inspiration source.

I will give you a couple of hints. He was 79 years old when he passed on in December 2009, ‘a farm boy from Idaho’ who made it big by teaching others what he had learned. His name: Jim Rohn.

Many of you will know whom I am talking about, and for the readers who do not know of Jim’s work; you are in for a treat. If you have been a personal development student, you may be familiar with Zig Ziglar, Napoleon Hill, Dennis Waitley, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and Earl Nightingale. In our opinion, Jim Rohn will do more to inspire you to greater heights than any of these esteemed gentlemen. The reason I say this is I differentiate motivation from inspiration. The difference may be a debated, but Jim Rohn will help you think about how you think. He will challenge the conventional thoughts learned from your parents, teachers, and other authority figures, and he does it with uncommon common sense.

If you have listened to Jim in the past, I suggest you revisit some of his material for a tune up. If you are curious about his material, you can visit his web site:   www.JimRohn.com. His web site will encourage you to buy his stuff. I will assure you that if you test-drive his material, you will get inspired and he will get you thinking about how to do more and to be a better you.

Enjoy.

GMO.