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It's all in the process...well, most of the time

(I knew that would grab your attention. No need for a double take, that's Steve Martin. I found this photo in the New York Times book review section. The photo credit goes to Sandee O.)

What does it mean to be a Renaissance Man?

After some intense thought and brief research, I found that a Renaissance Man is thought to be a man or a woman of many accomplishents.  The success of these accomplishments is in part due to the Renaissance Man's proficient knowledge in a wide range of fields.

Where am I going with this?

I came across Steve Martins' Born Standing Up earlier this year and it really got me thinking about processes. This book is an autobiography, but reads like a biography because it's a
step-by-step take, by Steve Martin, on how he accomplished his success.

In business terms, Born Standing Up is about the process. It's healthy to ID what customers need and then give it to them, but having a process in place on how to accomplish giving the customer what they need is stellar. Do you know your process?

Beth Schneider over at Process Prodigy has nailed the topic and has created a business based on processes. It is my understanding that in order to be successful in your deliverables for the customer, you have to have a process (system) in place to be sure it happens the way it's supposed to happen, every time.

What's your process for keeping your customers?

Send me a comment, I'd like to know. And if you've read the book, what are your thoughts about it?

Keep the learning going...pass it on!

~Peter

What's a cup of "Joe" worth to you?

Have you ever stopped to wonder about that? When you meet with a prospect at the local coffee shop,
that eventually turns into business...what's the dollar value of that cup of Joe?

Before I go there, I must say that getting to that cup of coffee has a lot to do with what you said yesterday, last week or last month that even got you the meeting. What you used as your pitch plays a HUGE role in how you plan to keep the pipeline full of prospects/business. The key to keeping that script fresh in your mind is to rehearse it as often as possible. Perfect practice makes perfect.

Look beyond the $4.85 Vanilla Latte...how many of those Lattes led to a new account? It's all in how you look at it. In fact, if you stopped reading this blog and went to your local coffee shop right now, you'll most likely see business happening all over the place. Those conversations you'll witness are far more than coffee.

Having a perfect elevator pitch isn't about big words and confusing jargon, it's about truly understanding your target market and having the ability to tug at their core emotions in 30 seconds or less whenever you're asked the coveted, sometimes dreadful, "What do you do?"

I found a useful tool to help hone in on my elevator pitch.  Practicing what you're going to say allows you to break away from the unneccesary information and get to the point of the message.       

If your coffee talks are down, maybe it's time to take a look and a listen. Grab a buddy, pitch and ask for feedback. Your pitch is your ticket to getting more time over coffee and in turn, greatly affecting your sales goal.

Keep the learning going...pass it on!

~Peter                                                                                                   

Workflow Focus Saves Lives: How's Your Workflow?

The Wall Street Journal has an AP article discussing how Emergency Rooms are saving lifesaving minutes when it comes to diagnosing and treating major heart attack victims. Read Here. For every half hour a major hear attack goes untreated the risk of death climbs to 42%. By alerting other departments simultaneously ER doctors can let catheterization labs prepare for lifesaving angioplasty instead of waiting for a cardiologists consult. Other steps included having the cardiologist on staff in the ER.

What I found most interesting was one of the conclusions that stated, "Most [changes] involve internal procedural changes and little costs."

Every business or organization has a workflow. We define workflow as the people, processes, technology and strategy by which work gets done. In this case a procedural shift is helping to save lives. They didn't have to add people or technology but just small changes in what they do! How many procedural changes could your organization make in an effort to save minutes or hours worth of work? Work that can lead to increase costs, reduced revenue...or even death. That may be taking it to the extreme, but for some organizations it's true.

Whether we're trying to change our company or helping one of our customers change...it's the change that's the hardest--not the new procedures, people or technology. It's the fact that we have to try to do things differently.

Consider saving a few minutes a day while working with every customer. Imagine how much time that adds up to? That’s time that could help you investigate newer, better methods.

The key to this is a strategy that is tangible and measurable. If you can measure it you will be able to know if your changes have any effect.

Printing industry association, PIA/GATF, completed a benchmarking study that found a focus on automation in the pressroom and bindery could save up to 1 hour of time for an 8,000 impression job.

The National Association of Printing Leadership implements a Competitiveness eKG survey of printing companies that compares one company to another in an effort to identify areas of customer relationships that can be improved.

Web based order entry and corrections continue to help speed many jobs through a printing plant and back to the customers that requested them.

Again, the key focus is to identify your requirements and see if you can't measure the current state, Make the necessary changes and measure again. It sounds simple but so many will say they don't have time to do it.

One of Murphy's Laws of Commerce states: There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but there is always enough time to do it over. Ah so true.

Take a minute today and look at one aspect of your workflow. See what you can do to make a small change and see if it won't net you a few minutes saved.  It could get you out of work 10 minutes earlier on a Friday. If you're feeling kinda bold try applying it to something bigger in your organization--or even your customers business: you never know...it could save your life.

Pass on what you learn to another!

~Peter