Larry Winget, author,
You’re Broke Because You Want To Be

This week’s Great Idea comes from Larry Winget who will be at GROW! 2012 for Friday’s VIP dinner and Saturday morning.

We all talk a pretty good game. We say the right words either to impress ourselves or others. The problem is that most people don’t follow through with the actions to make their words come to fruition. In fact, our actions often contradict our words completely. We say we want to be successful in business, yet don’t call people back immediately, don’t show up on time, don’t give service that is beyond expectations and sometimes, we aren’t even nice! How do you become successful doing that? You don’t. Your words don’t really matter much; it’s your actions that will determine your success! Get your actions in alignment with your words. Want more of the real truth about what it takes to be successful? Come to GROW 2012 and we’ll talk about it. See you there!

Marty’s note: Think about what Larry said. How do you plan on becoming successful in 2012? One way to start would be to come to Dayton from February 9-11 and see what you can learn about changing your business for the better for this year. Sign up now! Thanks, Larry; I can’t wait until we hear you speak in Dayton!

Joe Calloway, author
Becoming A Category of One

This week’s Great Idea comes from Joe Calloway who will be spending all 3 days of GROW! 2012 with us.

You’re over-thinking it. You’re banging your head against the wall trying to figure out how to “think outside the box” and come up with a “WOW Factor” that will differentiate you from your competition. “What can I do that’s really different and exotic that no one else is doing?  Hmmmmm……”

You want a WOW Factor? Here’s the ultimate WOW Factor:  deliver on the customer’s most basic expectations better than everyone else and do it every single time.

The sad, cold, hard truth is that people and companies who are chasing the wild goose of WOW Factor are doing it because they can’t win on the basics. Because they can’t differentiate on price, quality, delivery, or service, they have to find a gimmick that they hope will pull their butt out of the competitive fire and win customers.

Thinking outside the box is all well and good. But here’s the deal:  if you win INSIDE the box – if you can actually do a better job on your customers’ basic expectations – you win it all. Game over. You get all the money and you live happily ever after.

You may be thinking, “No, Joe, it can’t be that simple.”  YES!  It is that simple. The reason you’re not doing it is because it’s not easy. In fact, it’s hard as heck to be better on the basics than the other guy. But it’s where you get your greatest return.

Look at Zappos.com. Their sales are over a billion dollars a year. Their customers are wild, raving fans. And here’s where they win:  speed of delivery, free shipping, a great return policy, and fantastic customer service from their call center. They win inside the box. Nothing exotic. Nothing edgy.

B-A-S-I-C-S.

Want more?  In-N-Out Burgers (great hamburgers and sparkling clean restrooms), FedEx (dependable delivery), Southwest Airlines (low fares, friendly employees), and the list goes on and on.

List the three to five most basic things that your customers expect from you. Pick one. Improve your performance on that basic expectation by 20%. Then move on to the next expectation and improve on that by 20%. Do this constantly and forever.

You win. Game over. We’ll carry on this discussion and many more at GROW! 2012; see you there!

Marty’s note: What a great idea! You need to sign up for GROW! 2012 today and come to Dayton to spend time with Joe Calloway and Larry Winget so you’ll be prepared to make 2012 your best year ever.

• Get More Sales
• Finding the Right People
• Being More Efficient

Let’s talk briefly about each one.

Get More Sales. Sales are to a company what gasoline is to a car. You must have sales to move an entity forward. So the question becomes: how do I do that? One quick idea would be to call on your current clients, the folks who have helped you get your business where it is today and see if all their needs have been fulfilled. Chances are they have not. And, please, don’t laugh at the simplicity of this idea. I’m going to bet you my 401K, every single person reading this Great Idea, including me, could improve in this area. Call and/or visit your clients and make certain you have exhausted all opportunities for sales with them before chasing after other prospects.

Finding the Right People. We all can find people. But can you find the “RIGHT” people? That’s the challenge. Finding the right people starts with having a profile of what you are looking for. Look at your current workforce. Your best people. Where do they live? Why do you like them? What are their hobbies? And so on. Get as much insight as you can so that you are able to paint a picture of what traits all future hires could or should possess. You cannot be successful in hiring without having a clear target of what you are looking for.

Being More Efficient. Man, I could talk for days on this topic. I think companies are so busy at times finding new work they lose focus on doing the work they have the best possible way. Here’s one simple idea. Get your people together for a brainstorming session. Ask them to come to a 30-minute meeting next week with any idea that can be implemented immediately that will save the company less than $50. Tell them if they can find 10 ideas that immediately save the company $50 each, you’ll buy everyone pizzas when the items have been accomplished. The logic here is to gain some momentum. I think it’s hard to go after big things until you have covered the small things, the low-hanging fruit.

If you liked these 3 ideas, wait till you see what we do and share with you at GROW! 2012. My teachers, Matt Caruso, Joe Calloway, and Larry Winget, are not the type of talent you see at your average seminar. Most of those are full of infomercials and people who haven’t had success themselves, yet think they can teach others. I don’t know about you but I’d rather not listen to a college professor who has never run a business in their life tell me what I should do with my business and hence my money. That’s advice and everyone has advice. What we all need is the voice of experience and that’s what GROW! 2012 is.

Sign up for GROW! 2012 today before we have a complete sellout!

One of the best books I read in 2011 was Patrick Lecioni’s The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family. It’s a wonderful little book that speaks to something I’ve been saying for years. That something is my belief that we should use some of the things we learn at work at home. Anyway, I’m not going to share the whole book with you; let me just say if you have a family and you feel out of control at times, the book is a must read.

My accountability group that I run, Marty’s ACEs, read the book; and they loved it too. I made everyone in the group come up with a rallying cry, something Lencioni speaks of in the book. Just like a company needs a mission statement and/or some kind of focus for the season, families are well served to do the same. So, let me share with you my family’s rallying cry:

Spend more time together.

Sure, it’s simple, to the point. It’s easy to understand. My wife and I are going to work on this in 2012. Feel free to ask me how we’re doing as the year goes on. I hope you’ll read the book and I hope you’ll come up with a rallying cry for your family and, by all means, one for your business as well.

So, from my family to yours, Happy New Year and best wishes for a safe and prosperous 2012. I am really optimistic for this year and I think it’s going to be a good year for business…..I really do.

They fixed a button without being asked and for free!

What are you doing for your clients without being asked? What is something small you could do that would totally surprise your clients? Remember, you don’t want to give them a reason to go elsewhere.

By the way, I am not looking for a new dry cleaner and I don’t check their prices. Get it? If you do, you will make more money and lose less clients from this point on!

PS – Now that you know our special featured speaker for GROW! 2012, February 9-11, in Dayton, Ohio, what’s keeping you from signing up? Larry Winget AND Joe Calloway AND Matt Caruso AND Marty Grunder, all at one event! What more could you ask for? Sign up today! The price will go up on December 21st. We would love to see you at GROW! 2012.

I have watched my daughter grow up as she has played on this team. This is her last season with this coach and team before she goes on to play in high school and maybe beyond that, if that’s what she wants. Anyway, her coach is a very hard-working, caring person. She has had some challenges dealing with the team, nothing major, just the stuff you deal with as a coach of a competitive team.  One of the things Coach Janelle does is send the girls motivational messages and words of wisdom. And, many of them apply to business. A few weeks ago, she sent this story in and I really liked it. So, read through it and ask yourself if you’re a winner or a whiner and think about how your attitude determines your altitude.

I try really hard to have a good attitude but, like all of us, I stray at times as well. Thanks for the reminder, Coach Janelle, and thanks for all you have done for my daughter.

Here’s a photo of Lily and her coach and her team.

PS – Don’t forget; you can still sign up for GROW! 2012 for $550 but the price will be going up soon. Why don’t you go ahead and register your people today!

“Sales people, it’s that time of year again; in your mailbox you will find the annual sheets that I pass out every year looking for your input; maybe it’s a problem or a want on the GLC vehicle that you drive, or maybe on the jobsite you noticed something with a truck or piece of equipment that could be improved, or maybe you have seen another company with a piece of equipment that you thought would benefit Grunder by being more efficient, safer, a way to cut labor cost; all input gives us the chance to become better. Thanks for your help.

J. S.”

And here’s the sheet he asks our whole team to fill out.

This is a small thing we do, but it’s thinking like this that helps us improve. And when you can get your people to do this (I had NOTHING to do with this), you are on the right track. Even small details like this make a big difference. What do you need to improve? How can you get your team to think like my Joe does? Those questions and others are things we’ll talk about and you’ll learn about at GROW! 2012.

Sign up now before the price goes up!

When I first heard Dave Sullivan say these words, I did not realize how true they were. Now, over 10 years after I first heard these words, I too can say that “all planning is good.”

So, this week, with the end of the year near, I want to encourage you to do some planning because “all planning is good.”

Now, why is all planning good? All planning is good because just the act of sitting down and thinking about where you want to go leads to improvement. Sit down and define where you are right now with your business and life. Think about that and put it in writing. Next, think about where you’d like to be next year in terms of your business and your life and write that down. Then, write down what you need to do to get there.

Don’t make it too difficult.

Your plan might look like this.

Current Reality

I run a company that does 750k a year in sales and I am making 80k a year. I have a nice family but we don’t spend enough time together. I don’t have enough saved for retirement and there also isn’t enough in the kids’ college fund.

2012 Desired Outcome

In 2012 I need to make 100k and spend more time with my family.

Steps I need to take to make 2012 Successful

1. Sell 900k worth of profitable work
2. Create and Implement a Marketing Plan
3. Cut 10% in expenses.
4. Take two family vacations, one in April and on in July; take a long weekend with my wife in September
5. Create an HR plan that improves our hiring, training, and retaining

I could go on for days about this. Let’s just say this: All Planning is Good! Take some time to think about what you did well this year and what you need to improve and you too will find that “all planning is good.”

If you need some help, call us; we’ll discuss how we help entrepreneurs move their businesses forward. And, by all means, attend GROW! 2012 where we will talk about this in detail!

Most of us in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, eating favorite dishes, maybe taking a walk or playing games and certainly for many watching football games. And then there are many people selflessly working Thanksgiving to keep us safe and healthy.

Some families take a few minutes to go around the table and each person says something they are thankful for. Sometimes they are silly but often they are heartfelt thoughts of appreciation.

So this week take those few extra minutes to stop and focus on what you are thankful for. Here are some of my biggest reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving:

• Family & friends
• Healthy children
• Food and shelter
• Living in the USA
• My companies and team members
• My clients
• Our men and women of the armed services
• And our police officers and firefighters

Maybe you could even send a note to someone special in your life telling them that you appreciate them and why. Many of us just do not write notes anymore. You’ll be surprised at how welcome that note will be to the person who receives it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The last 2011 webinar is almost here; it will be Tuesday, November 22nd at 4:00 pm titled The Year’s Almost Over: What to Do to Finish Strong & Get Things in Place to Kick Butt in 2012. You can still sign up today!

My pal, the legendary teacher and author Joe Calloway, believes that we know what we ought to be doing; we just don’t do it. I agree with this 100%. And so, I’ll get right to the point.

What are the things you know you should be doing that you aren’t doing?

Are you eating right?

Does your family know and understand what you are trying to do at work?

Do they know what your dream is? (How do you expect them to help you if they don’t know what your dream is?)

Have you done all your team’s performance reviews?

Along those lines, are there any people on your team right now that shouldn’t be? (More on that one in a future great idea.)

When was the last time you spoke to your top 30 clients?

I could go on and on.

The best thing you could do right now to help you succeed is to sit down with a blank piece of paper in silence at the library or where you can think and write down all the things you need to be doing to help you succeed. And then prioritize those and get to work on them one by one. Too many of us wander aimlessly towards this thing we call success and never find it. Focused entrepreneurs win.

My last webinar for this year is coming up next week on Tuesday, November 22nd, at 4:00 pm titled The Year’s Almost Over: What to Do to Finish Strong & Get Things in Place to Kick Butt in 2012. Don’t forget that we changed the date to November 22nd. So sign up today! Also, you should go ahead and sign up for GROW! 2012. The price will go up once I announce the surprise speaker who’s willing to come to warm and sunny Dayton, Ohio, in February!