Educating is a Required Marketing Technique

Note...this blog was originally labeled "In-th-Box," thus, the reference to that name in this video. Also, you likely got to this post/blog via www.DannyLSmith.com. That address transfers to this blogs original URL (www.RP2Development.com). I considered moving all this under the dannylsmith name, with no forward, but!...I get over 100 hits per day the way it is.

Why mess up a good thing? Ego? Ouch...now, about Educating as a marketing technique.



Thanks to Donny Hunter and goSmallBiz.com for the information I've shared here. Donny can be reached at 254-230-3495 or donny@poctllc.com.

(If you like..please share below)

"The Talent Masters" by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan

My familiarity with Ram Charan's writings and work was the second thing that caught my attention about this book. The first was the title; "The Talent Masters."

The third connection was the opening sentence of Chapter 1, Page 1.....

"If business managed their money as carelessly as they manage their people, most would be bankrupt."

No introduction, no forward. Just straight to that point - "If business managed their money as carelessly as they manage their people, most would be bankrupt."

To that end....

Learning about Good Results from Networking, Leads, and/or Referrals

I'm learning a great deal about getting good results from networking; meeting with people (new and renew) asking about their business and what is their ideal referral, and then telling the same about my own. Then, taking that to the next level..."do they have other needs I can collaborate within my network wit?"

More on that from the streets as the path continues.

Blessings

Rhythms

Reviewing old posts this week is reminding me of habits, good habits, I need to keep in my routine.....a rhythm if you will.

Here's one of those rhythms that should be more routine than it is, but needed to achieve those goals and practice the values.


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Original post 12/06/2011


I have a list of things that try to do everyday. Over the years there have been items on this list that I do even on days I forget to look at the list. I supposed those items have become habits.

Others though, I have to be reminded to do, especially those items new to the list. New items show up and taken off the list based upon the fields I'm preparing, seeds I'm planting, and the harvest that comes from that work and prayer.

I call this list My Daylies; things I need to do everyday. My Daylies are general in nature that drives the "to-do-list."

My Daylies include things like:

1. look at yesterday's calendar,read emails, a couple of websites I need to stay tuned into...
2. make notes from meetings about yesterday's work
3. make a list of follow-up needs on yesterday's work
4. make a list of things to do today
5. prioritize
6. add followers to social media...

Actually, the list is more of a circle that sometimes rolls throughout the day and I'll even start it over on the same day; Collin's hedgehog comes to mind.

This is a weakpoint for me; coaching has helped and I use technology to keep the list in front of me.

I just need to remember to look at the list everyday; it's amazing how I can ignore those calendar/task pop-ups on my phone.

To that end.....

Blessings

Circling Back to Goals

We're three weeks into the new year and I'd bet good money that few people you ask have thought much, if anything, about their goals.

Here's my post on Goals and Values from 12/06/2010 -


Setting goals is one part of achieving good results. Achieving good results is about aligning values, setting good goals, establishing plan and strategies, determining measure points, putting forth the work and having a robust evaluation and correction process.

Goals are rarely achieved because of numerous reasons and the #1 cause is a lack of alignment to a persons T.A.S.K.S. (see below) and #2 an understanding of what it takes to properly setting goals to begin with.

Working through and clarifying your values is the first stage of a solid foundation for goal setting. To properly set a goal, the goal must be reasonable and must be set in accordance with a person’s talents, attitude, skill, knowledge and style (TASKS); a goal can be set to increase or strengthen any of these TASKS points.

Goals can and should build upon each other to achieve results that today one doesn’t have the TASKS to achieve. More about that in another session.

A key component to that solid foundation is recognizing your Core Ideology; comprised of your mission and your values. During life’s triumphs, struggles and day-to-day living your Core Ideology is what helps ground your behaviors and thoughts so that no matter what path you find yourself engaged on, you stand true.

It’s vitally important to not only define your mission and values but to put them both in writing, commit to these statements, and recognize when you find yourself detouring.

RP2 has developed a worksheet designed to help define your values and we'll be glad to share it with you.

Just ask; danny@dannylsmith.com or 512-773-6528.

To that end.....

This week I'm off-site quite a bit and will revisit some old, but relevant to my path; sales, the importance of sales and who should be selling; hint (everyone).

Originally posted 30 July, 2010

The key salespeople in a professional services environment are those who actually perform the services; they are the key that completes the sales force.

I've spent most of my career in the mortgage industry and have had an active hands-on roll in all aspects except payment servicing. Some people say I'm a good sales-person, yet I've failed the most at being a loan officer. Or, I should say, I've failed the most at the traditional sales side of being a loan officer.

As long as I've got an active audience, I've done well. Whether delivering the goods as a loan officer or processor with borrowers, or with underwriters or closers or title companies, I've had great results. Talking to the back shops with investors, or with warehouse lines....done well.

Give me a product and connect me with the person I need to deliver it to...that's my sweet spot. Or put me in a room of people, or one-on-one, to train or coach and I'll develop a relationship and get results through that format. But don't send me out on the streets or put me on the phone to "just sell." Almost guaranteed failure.

But, all those years I wasn't "out selling" I still thought of myself as a salesperson. When I had someone on the phone or face-to-face, I was still selling. We all sell something every time we talk to someone and hopefully it is with good results in relationship to the product or service our company is attempting to deliver through us. We might pose it a communicating or discussing or some other aspect, but generally we are selling.

Mortgage lending's traditional sales people are loan officers and a good loan officer gets the loans in the door. But then, what happens? Most don't even know that the sales process must continue. The loan officer has to "sell" to get the loan application in most cases, and the processor, underwriter, closer, and funder MUST continue what the LO started.

Most companies have a tremendous amount of assets sitting in their box, but many of those assets don't even know they should be selling.

To that end.....

Experience, Not Opinions

RP2 is about being the right person and in the right place; about helping companies hire the right people, train them well, and move those that do not fit a job into another position or out of the company.

RP2 is about doing this the right way; doing it well. An example of tools we would use to help achieve these results include -

1. SMARTS assessment: every position in your company is important to sales. The report produced as a result of an individual taking the SMARTS will help us determine how a person will perform in a sales role.

2. ABC (Assessment of Behavioral Characteristics): identifies a person's primary behavioral tendencies when working with others and the way in which a person will respond to stress, conflict, leadership, and followership.

3. Employee Climate Survey
Identifies the attitudes and values of the workforce.
Discovers areas of need for targeted training.
Develops specific action steps to improve in each of 9 critical areas.

RP2, using experience and technology to help the right people get the right results from the right place.

Book: Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

Update on original post in 2009 on my reading blog; The book has been published and I was listed as one of a couple hunderd contributors. My daughter, Sunne, is getting me the book for my birthday (hint, hint).

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From original post -

This is going to be an interesting read. John Maxwell is writing a new book titled "Everyone Communicates, Few Connect" and is posting his manuscript, one chapter every other week or so, on the web for review and comments.

Now, about the book; what a great title! Personally, I can't imagine a better idea for a book in such a culture as we have today. Personally, I feel, much of the time, like a talking-head and have recognized for years that I communicate my head and fingers off, yet..... it's often to deaf ears, skipped emails, and other agendas.

To that end.... http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/

Points to Ponder on the Right People

Surround yourself with great people, set the proper expectations and be able to let go long enough for them to do their job.

Trust, but verify in as rapid a process as you can; have a good evaluation and correction process. The evaluation needs to be a combination of passive and responsive.

Be a mentor, but don't hover over your employees. IF you feel you have to hover, you have the wrong employees....or they have the wrong boss.

Be a boss and not a buddy; know the difference and seperation. If you haven't had training in being a boss, get it. You'll pay for it one way or another and the classroom and coaching is cheaper than trial and error.

Empower employees to solve the problems. Give everyone boundaries they can go up to in solving money problems with a customer/client.

Everyone that interacts with clients needs to be considered in sales...even those that aren't "salespeople." The person delivering the product or service at any given moment is the true sales person.

Surround yourself with the best people possible and be able to let go when you have someone that is not putting forth the right stuff.

Get advice and help on hiring and training people; this is going to cost money, but it is worth it.

Hiring people is the most important decision a business owner or manager makes 99% of the time.

If you don't have the ability to relinquish responsibility and give up and trust people you will never be able to grow your business.

Train yourself and your people; not just on the technical aspects of the job, but on how to be better people.
Your people need to have your core values and the attitude to go along with skills and the willingness to get better.

Whoa Whoa Whoa..What Did You Just Say?

Have you taken the online test for Adult ADD? I've decided to pay attention after a recent disussion with Sunne (my daughter) in which she made a statement and I immediately (or so I thought) replied "whoa whoa whoa, what did you just say?" She repeated what she thought I was referring to (what she had just said) only for us both to realize I was more than a few words behind in the conversation.

Work with me here.

She had made a comment, I locked on to that comment and tried for at least 60 seconds to rationalize/comprehend/get-a-grip-on it, and when I finally asked "whoa....," she was way down the road into her story, which I still have no idea what it was about because I...never mind.

The comment that locked me up, and out of what else she was saying was -

"....well, my Adult ADD kicked in and like the guy teaching the calm marriage class at church said 'many adults with ADD want, but don't demand, organization. And when they don't have it they tend to become overwhelmed which leads to a form of depression and then they just go through the motions and let the world pass them by."

Do you think you have blind spots? I've learned, through some serious trial and error, that I have big ones. And I know this because I've been blindsided so many times and whether it is blind trust, or just being naive, well, they're there. For me anyway.

I'm looking into this Adult ADD thing; assessment, test, this has got to be more than just a personality problem!

Blessings,

Danny

Points to Ponder - "What Are Our Results?"

More on Peter Drucker's book The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization.


Question 4: What Are Our Results?

In a business, results can be measured in sales, profits, and market share. You can debate whether profit is really an adequate measure, but, as Drucker pointed out many times, without profit there is no business in the long term.

Progress and achievement can be measured in both qualitative and quantitative terms; interwoven and both necessary.

Results changes the customers' lives.

Qualitative measures address how deep and broad the change is while quantitative measures tell an objective story be starting with categories and expectations. In the end the quantitative offers hard data.

Drucker was emphatic that leadership is accountable to determine what must be appraised and judged, to protect the organization from squandering resources, and to enusre meaningful results.

The marketplace is to a metropolis what the heart is to the human body

Ending this first week of 2011 and reflecting on my results, or lack of, I've realized that I've gotten a more done that I first thought. This reflection has led me to review my goals, values, mission and measurements of them all. That, in turn, led me to notes I took on this book beginning in 2007 and reread in early 2010.

Over the past 20 years (that just brought up another realization) I've read over 4,000 pages about God and the workplace and was likely a bit lathargic when I first read Annointed for Business. Silvoso's book has become a more important read than I originally thought.
The Introduction puts a good perspective on being Annointed for Business -

The marketplace.....is to a metropolis what the heart is to the human body. Yet millions of men and women who have been called to ministry in the marketplace feel like second-class citizens when compared to those who serve in a church or missionary context, and they often fail to rise to their God-appointed position. It is time to give marketplace people their rightful validation as full-fledged ministers, because the last revival - the one prophsied by Joel and quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17-21 - will take place all over the city and not just inside a church building.

To that end.....

Goals and the Matter of Values

I originally posted this back in November but felt the end of the first week of a new year was a good time to reflect back on the subject.

Setting goals is one part of achieving good results. Achieving good results is about aligning values, setting good goals, establishing plan and strategies, determining measure points, putting forth the work and having a robust evaluation and correction process.

Goals are rarely achieved because of numerous reasons and the #1 cause is a lack of alignment to a persons T.A.S.K.S. (see below) and #2 an understanding of what it takes to properly setting goals to begin with.

Working through and clarifying your values is the first stage of a solid foundation for goal setting. To properly set a goal, the goal must be reasonable and must be set in accordance with a person’s time, attitude, skill, knowledge and style (TASKS); a goal can be set to increase or strengthen any of these TASKS points.

Goals can and should build upon each other to achieve results that today one doesn’t have the TASKS to achieve. More about that in another session.

A key component to that solid foundation is recognizing your Core Ideology; comprised of your mission and your values. During life’s triumphs, struggles and day-to-day living your Core Ideology is what helps ground your behaviors and thoughts so that no matter what path you find yourself engaged on, you stand true.

It’s vitally important to not only define your mission and values but to put them both in writing, commit to these statements, and recognize when you find yourself detouring.

We have a worksheet designed to help define your values and we'll be glad to share it with you.

Just ask; danny@dannylsmith.com or 512-773-6528.

To that end.....

Three Feet from Gold

This is a great book to start off the new year with. I actually read this book back in late 2009 but I know it is a great book because I regularly think about don't quit...you might be close.

If you read Think and Grow Rich, you'll enjoy this read, and if you haven't read Think and Grow Rich, you'll enjoy this read.


The book starts off with a true story of about a miner who had worked his tail off looking for gold, gave up and sold his mine. The new owner found the mother load 3 feet in a different direction.

The authors have tied facts, real people, fiction and time tested principles of perseverance into a well done story about changed lives.

Those of us who don't know when to quit will love this book because it will fuel our fires, those who don't persevere so well can gain some insight.

In any event, the book reads well and has a great story line.

To that end.....

Drinking from a fire hydrant

Bryan Anderson (@BryanKAnderson, ReMAX Realtor) sent me this picture and commented "When I saw this I thought of you. I don't know why."

Ha! Obviously, he knows me well.

I wonder if it's just the idea of drinking from a fire hydrant, or the extra work that went into fixing this thing up?

Bryan was probably just referring to the overall drinking from a fire hydrant part because the work to get that thing to fit would have been way too much work; my tendancy is to try and manage the flow with the normal valve.

Blessings as you think about how this fits in your life; are you the type that would instal the fountain, or just adjust the flow

Danny
 

Right People-
    Right Place