Archive for the ‘Performance Improvement’ Category

Selling and Surviving During an Economic Downturn

Friday, May 27th, 2022

For some business owners, sales can be a challenge during the best of times, but in Q2 of 2021, serving up products and services for a profit is a matter of survival. Current studies report between 800 and 1500 small business closures have occurred daily in the US between February and September of 2020. While Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota says this is “unacceptable” and has carried the mantel of more pandemic relief for small businesses, as Women in Business what can WE do to keep our businesses open and afloat?

One answer is to take a look at the psychology of consumer spending during past recessions to understand how to continue to market and sell now.

According to Harvard researchers John Quelch and Katherine Jocz, customers and clients unnerved by an economic downturn react by placing goods and services they consider purchasing into one of four categories.

Action Step One: Take a look at the list of categories below and determine where your businesses products land.

Essentials. These are items that consumers need to purchase for survival. Goods and services in this category are central to well being. Food, housing, clothing are a few essentials.

Treats. Items that fall into this category are not essential to well being, but they do provide immediate gratification. Consumers can justify their need to have these goods and services now. Beauty and spa services can fall into this category. Restaurants and dining out may be considered treats as well.

Postponables. When belts are tightened, consumers look for purchases which can be postponed. Getting an appliance repaired instead of spending for a new one is an example of a postponable.

Expendables. Goods and services which may be higher ticket items and are perceived as unnecessary and an unjustifiable expense. The purchase of an expendables can be put off indefinitely. During past recessions luxury items and travel fell into this category.

Action Step Two: Your core marketing message needs to shift to “You need this for the long term, for your ‘new normal’.” And with the dream of a new, less chaotic, more predictable lifestyle etched firmly in their heads, consumers and clients will be more likely to purchase items from the postponable and expendable categories.

Action Step Three: Use optimistic, upbeat, positive language to tell the story of how your goods and services will enhance and support the ‘new normal’ lifestyle your clients are creating. If you are selling postponable kitchen cabinets, hook harried customers in by telling them a story on social media with beautiful new cupboards with plenty of effortless space for everything they need to store now and in the future.

Action Step Four: Connection is king! Haven’t heard from a key customer for a while? Pick up the phone and give them a call just to check in and see how they are doing. This is not a sales call, it is a “connecting with you” call. Be positive and upbeat-its not the time to commiserate but it is a time to express gratitude and bring joy into a client’s day. Remember when we used to send and receive cards in the mail? Another effective connection strategy is to send a card just to say “thank you” or “thinking of you”. Writing a personal note has become a lost art which your business can capitalize on to make an impact and stand out from the crowd.

Action Step Five: Reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce to be sure that you are taking advantage of all of the marketing and networking tools available through your continued membership. The staff members are experts at connecting members and services with community resources such as the Small Business Administration.

Action Step Six: As I mention in my “Navigating Personal and Professional Change” presentation, a way to keep your own spirits high is to “Remember-Now is not forever!” Practice gratitude by counting your blessings everyday. And make an effort to do something kind for someone else everyday. Focusing on helping others will help you in more ways than you can possibly imagine.

Cheering you on to success!

 

©Rita Perea 2021

Executive Presence- Do You Have “It”?

Tuesday, June 19th, 2018

Most of us have had the experience of being with or in front of a director, manager or senior leader who had a powerful presence. Maybe we left the meeting saying, “I want to be like him/her someday!” Executive Presence, or EP, is also known as charisma, the “it” factor and the confidence code. In a survey of Chief Information Officers conducted by Gartner, E.P. was second on the list of the top 20 leadership traits that make a difference in people’s career trajectories. That same group ranked technology skills as 12th on the list.

What is the “it” in the “It” factor and how do you get more of “it” to increase your executive presence?

Executive presence is not about being ego-based or the most outspoken or gregarious person in the room. It is, however, all about making a genuine connection with others, one-on-one or when addressing a group. EP is also about operating from a place of deep awareness and presence- your true north- with conviction and caring. Certain qualities, traits and skills demonstrate that a leader has executive presence.

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Dismantling the distractions in your work day

Tuesday, August 1st, 2017

Has this ever happened to you…you get to the end of your work day and wonder if you’ve achieved anything? Where did the time go?  Maybe you start to think about the projects you didn’t get accomplished and ask yourself why?

Life hacker photo- labeled for reuseChances are that you are being distracted at work.

It happens to us all in small ways: the bell on your personal cell phone signaling a text message; the little banner which flashes across your computer screen to announce the arrival of a new email; the co-worker who stops by your office to commiserate at length about his inability to work on the new project because he doesn’t have enough time.

Taken separately these are all just tiny incidents. We can handle one item and then get back to the task at hand. Together, however, they become a raging river of distractions which take us careening off course and leave us feeling depleted and exhausted. An overload of continuous distractions can cause us to become low performers, which can potentially impact our job negatively.

Let’s look at the story of Sally (of course, not her real name). Sally was an exceptional supervisor managing an award-winning marketing team. She had an open door policy with her team members and would invite anyone to discuss anything with her at anytime.   Sally’s office was like a revolving door- people coming in and going out all day long.

During the holidays Sally’s children got their own cell phones. Everyday after school the kids would send oodles of text messages to her seeking her attention as a referee in their disputes. Sally began to avoid marketing calls with clients during that “magical” after school time to be available if the children sent a text. This cut Sally’s productivity down substantially. She started to work later and later, which eroded what little work-life balance she had.

To make matters worse, Sally’s husband also got a new iPhone 6 and began sending emails and text messages to her throughout the day about meaningless dribble such as, “Let’s remember to pick up cat food on Saturday!” The dings, the dongs, the bells and the whistles were distracting not only to Sally but to her team as well. Sally’s unfinished projects were stacking up and she was at the breaking point. Her distractions were insidious. She did not really know why she was being so unproductive, only that she was not the high-performer she once was.

Fearing that she was going to receive a terrible performance review, Sally wisely sought some advice for this complicated problem.

Sally’s mentor suggested that she begin to take control of the situation by completing a daily time log. Sally agreed to document which project she was working on every 30 minutes. If she was interrupted, she would log it by noting who interrupted her and what the interruption was about.

Sally kept track of her time and was shocked after reviewing just the first three days. She clearly saw some patterns that needed to be changed. She knew that she had to take action to dismantle her daily distractions and to get her work life back on track again.

Sally focused on changing several behaviors that made all of the difference in the world:

  1. Start the day with uninterrupted time.  Sally arrived at work, went into her office, closed the door and started her day by working on one high-priority project for 30 minutes. She did not check her email. She did not check voice messages. Instead she immediately dug into her most pressing project. After 30 minutes of uninterrupted and focused time, she opened her door and emerged, feeling as though she had already accomplished something important for the day.
  2. Build time into the schedule to check and respond to email, voice and text messages. Sally decided that she would check her devices and respond only during three windows of time each day: After her uninterrupted 30 minutes of morning work time; after lunch; and for an hour before she left the office for the day. She also instructed her family to not send text messages or call her during the work day unless it was an emergency. Sally had to remind herself over and over again that she did not have to quickly react to each message she was receiving. She felt comfortable responding within 24 hours. She gave herself permission to take her time and to be purposeful about her responses to other people’s inquiries.
  3. Scheduling team time and one-on-one time with her employees. Sally subtly changed her open door policy to the proactive model of scheduling time each week to speak with people. Of course, Sally will help with problem solving in emergency situations, but if she thinks that a problem can wait she will ask the employee to put it on their “Meeting with Sally” list.
  4. Use Friday afternoons for unfinished business and planning the week ahead.   Sally deliberately schedules time in the office and at her desk on Fridays to finish those projects which can be wrapped up before the weekend. She also finds it useful to review upcoming projects for the week ahead. When Sally leaves the office on Fridays, she knows that she can enjoy her time with her family during the weekend because she left things in a good place at work.

We all need to be ever-vigilant in minimizing our own work distractions and interruptions to maximize the balance between our personal and our professional lives. Using these four time-saving tips can help us do just that.

Latest Article

Selling and Surviving During an Economic Downturn

For some business owners, sales can be a challenge during the best of times, but in Q2 of 2021, serving up products and services for …


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