On today’s episode of Simple Strategies for a Complex World with Paul Cummings, Paul craves out a daily business process he has created to ensure you are putting your most valuable customers to the forefront daily.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to Simple Strategies for a Complex World. Well, I’m really excited about today because as a business owner, as somebody who’s got his capital at risk every day, you know, you and I have a lot in common. It takes a special brand of person to want to build a business, to want to be a business owner, to want to have the responsibility of creating a product, marketing a product, making sure that you can find your place out there in this big marketplace that we’re all competing in. And that you can build a great team. And that you can have people that want to work for you, and show up every day, and take care of your customers, and deliver unyielding amazing service.
You know that’s why I respect business owners so much because when we get up every morning, we know that we don’t have a choice to do less or be less because the world’s too competitive today. So, I was thinking, you know, what would be great to talk about today? And I thought about a strategy that I put in place for years and it is a simple strategy, but it works. And you know, and that is to really think every single day when I wake up, to have this one question in my mind, who is my single greatest opportunity to create business today? Who is my single greatest opportunity to create business today?
So, what I’ve done is I’ve created a process for me and that is I carve out 60 minutes, as a business owner, on my calendar every day, for a reason. What gets scheduled, gets done. And I look at my funnel. And I say, “Okay, in my relationships, which customer right now provides me the single greatest opportunity to actually do business today?” And then, I work through a strategy. What do I need to say when I call? What type of materials do I need to put in front of them? What is most likely to get them across the line? How can I turn this high potential customer into an active real customer?
I want you to think about this with me. Why would you want to start your day any other way? And the beautiful thing about this strategy, if you have sales people working for you, they need to adopt the strategy too. This doesn’t need to be just the business owner. Anybody running a unit of business for you, that’s generating revenue, and producing sales, we should make our first swing of the day every day at the customer that gives us the greatest opportunity for a successful sales result.
So, if you get through today, I want you to think about going through your funnel, and then prioritizing and ranking your high potential customers. Which are the ones from A to Z that give you the greatest opportunity to produce right now business? Once you have them identified, everyone will need their own customer strategy. What’s going to get them over the line? Is it a feature? Is it a benefit? Is it a value proposition? What’s the need you’re filling? What is the solution you’re giving this organization, this potential customer? And how do you put yourself in the best position to get a win?
Now, let me tell you how the result has been for me as a business owner through the last 25 years by focusing on my high potential customer candidates every day, by identifying my SGO. I’ve been able to close a much higher percentage of sales from the people that I’ve competed with over the years. And the reason being it’s a more narrow focused approach. It’s dialing in on that customer and giving them a presentation that’s customized for them.
But what it’s done for me is it gets me up every morning thinking about the most important thing and that is how do I get a yes today from the customer that provides me a maximum potential? And by thinking that way, by developing that right now, single greatest opportunity mindset, it’s just become a part of my daily work habit. I do it every day. I do it every time, without fail, no expectations. I do not let anybody interrupt that time on my diary. I spend that 60 minutes a day doing everything I can to try to get a yes from my best customer.
Think about how you can implement the strategy in your business. Think about how you could share the strategy with other people in your business, involved in the business of sales. If you’ve got 20 sales people working for you right now and all 20 … think about this. Started their day presenting to their single greatest opportunity to sale. Do you think your business would get better? Do you think your closing percentages would improve? Do you think that you would generate and drive more revenue into your business?
Well, let me answer the question for you. We’ve implemented this with companies all over the world, not once, not ever, have we had a customer do less business by focusing on their high potential customers. Implement this strategy and you will have amazing, quick, great success.
Isn’t it fun to be a leader? You know, I love that word, leader. And leadership is something that we all can get better at. But, what are leaders known for? What is that creates the legacy of a leader? It’s judgment and it’s the decisions you make. One of the things that I want to stress to you is that how do you make better judgment? How do you create more effective decision making as a part of your leadership process?
Well, there’s a formula I believe in. I believe this that it’s not the circumstances of our business that determine the outcome. It’s the way we respond to circumstance. And the way we respond to circumstance is either proactive or reactive. How do you stay in reactive mode, versus, proactive mode? Well, if you’re a reactive leader, it means you never slow down. If you’re a reactive, it means you don’t ask high-quality questions. If you’re reactive, it means your judgment is not consistent. And if you have inconsistent judgment and inconsistent decisions, you lose your leadership credibility.
So, how do you become a proactive leader who exercises great judgment and who develops consistency in making high-quality effective decisions? Well, here’s how you do it. If you ask a better question, you’re going to get a better answer. So, when you need to make a decision, ask questions that are positive, collect information, so you can analyze, slow yourself down, look through your information, think about outcomes, think about implementation, think about the resources you’ll need to see that decision put in motion. Think about how you’re going to present it to your team, and once you’ve done this, you’re going to be able through high-quality questions to put in motion a better decision, by exercising better judgment.
You see the cool thing about decisions is they bring with it action. And from action, it’s universally proven that sets in motion cause. Cause brings about effect. Effect determines direction. And direction is what absolutely determines your ultimate destiny. So, if you want to be a great leader, your formula is pretty simple. Circumstance arises, ask a better question. Collect better data, slow down, analyze, make an effective decision, put in motion an action, that will bring the cause. That will create the effect. The effect will absolutely determine direction and destiny. So, as a leader, I want you to know you can exercise great judgment, you just have to ask another better question in reference to the circumstances of your business on a day in and day out basis, and it will work for you.
One thing I hope you’re enjoying about our weekly program is when we talk about affirmations. You know, sometimes people think affirmations are a little bit hokey, but I can tell you that what you say out loud, what you believe, what you back with an, I will, statement, become a reality in your life. Today’s affirmation’s really important. If you’re in business, you can’t get this one wrong: I will be prepared to jump through hoops to make our internal and external customers feel valued every day.
So many times, I see business leaders forget that you do have two groups of customers. You got the people that you’re selling to, that you’re providing service to, but you have your internal customer, which is your team member. And if you take care of your team member, they will take care of your customers. That is an irrefutable fact. You need to affirm that in your business every day and jump through those hoops to make their experience great.
Hey everybody, listen, I asked some friends of mine in the business world to shoot me some questions if they’d liked me to answer one of those during this program, and I got a great question from a young man named, Jeremy, that I thought I would use to kind of share a life lesson today. His question was, “Paul, what do you do when you have a positive attitude, and you work for a manager who has a negative attitude?”
And I think my answer to Jeremy that I wrote him, surprised him and I want to share with you what I told him. I said, “Jeremy, you need to focus on the things within your control. You can’t control your manager’s attitude, but you can control the way you respond to it. And because someone else is negative, because someone else has decided to be a sincere sore head, it doesn’t mean you have to participate. You’re the one that’s in control of the way you see the world and your perception is your reality. Don’t let a ditch digger put you in the ditch with him. You go chart a success path for yourself.”
So, I hope that life lesson helps you today. Hey, I just want to mention this real quick, if you have not yet picked up a copy of my new book, It All Matters, please do so today. You can order it through amazon.com or you can go to the paulcummings.com website and order an autograph copy. I think this book will make a huge difference to you.
Thanks so much for tuning into our show. Go have yourself a remarkable level ten week.
