Productivity Experiments Archives - Page 4 of 10

November 17, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

How Can I 10X My Business (or any other area)?

I heard the other day (on Dan Miller’s 48 Days Online Radio Show) that it’s sometimes easier to 10X your business than it is to move the needle up incrementally.

Interesting idea. I like it.

Why not 10X your efforts if you can?

I understand daily, disciplined action. I believe that it really does take small, simple steps over time to make lasting change.

But sometimes doesn’t there need to be a complete tear down and rebuild?

Sometimes don’t we need to bring in a new set of eyes to see the huge opportunities that we sometimes miss while our vision is clouded by the day to day grind?

Perhaps you need to pull out your calendar and hack out all the junk that you truly don’t want to do so that you can throw your heart into the fewer things you’d love to do.

Maybe you need to quit saying yes to so many people so you can treat your priorities with a sense of urgency.

10X your business by extreme focus or by completely reframing your career or sales process. If what you’re doing is only making incremental change, then perhaps you need to carpet bomb what you’re doing and infuse new life, new ideas, or even a knew context.

Give it a shot. I know I am.

November 13, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

When Do You Start Planning for the Next Year?

Does it ever feel like creating a plan for your year in January is too late?

Today, I was challenged twice to start planning for 2015.

The first time was by Dan Miller himself in his September 12th episode of his 48 Days Online Radio Show.

I’m a little late for his 48 day challenge, but I love his suggestion to begin well before the end of the year.

The second time was by the CEO of the firm I work for. He didn’t necessarily encourage us to finish the planning early, but he did propose that we start now (in order to be ready the first week of January with a clear plan of action.

Why Start Now?

Since the focus of this blog is sales, let’s talk about why it’s a good idea to create a sales plan well before January. The concepts should be transferrable to most other areas of life.

Planning early helps end the year well

Sure, planning early could be a distraction from ending the year strong, but more than likely, it will put you in a productive mindset. Dreaming of what you want to accomplish in the next year will get your gears turning.

Planning early gives you a prospecting head start

In light of ending the year well, you might get a prospecting head start. If you start identifying your benchmarks for the new year, will you not begin focusing on potential new clients? Make a call or 100. Ask for referrals. Get your first two weeks of January stacked up with appointments. Heck, calling in December for January appointments will relieve your prospects from having too many commitments over the holidays.

Planning early helps identify needed tools and resources

All plans require resources. If your sales plan includes sales training opportunities, target niche conference and networking, or other additional resources, planning early gives you some breathing room to find what you’ll need for the new year. Or it will help you to identify the conferences, training events, centers of influence, or vendors who can help you execute.

Planning early allows for a rest the last week or two of December

I’ve been guilty of ‘cramming’ between Christmas and New Year instead of relaxing and giving my mind and body some down time with my family.

If your plan is done by the middle of December, you can simply review it and put yourself in the mindset to hit the ground running in January. You can be done with it and give yourself a season of rest.

Waiting until January often feels too late

I’ve been guilty of this too. I’ll start planning at the beginning of the new year only to let any planning go as urgencies mount quickly in January. Or worse, the beginning of January gives way to the middle of the month and it almost feels like it’s too late. It never is too late, but it’ll feel that way if you start executing your year’s plan in the latter part of January. It’s more of a mental thing.

Sitting down on that first work day of the month and pulling out the first task of the first project that will propel you toward your goals is a powerful thing.

Do You Plan for the Next Year?

Are you a planner? Or do you lump the process of creating a plan for the new year in with New Year’s resolutions?

I’d love to hear about your process in the comments below.

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Today’s Listening (In addition to the 9/12 48 Days Radio Show)

Just start walking? – 48 Days Online Radio Show with Dan Miller

Between the two of these shows, I’m at 96 minutes of high-end content!

Thanks Mr. Miller!

November 12, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

The Best Way to Say “Yes” is to Say “No”

Yesterday I received a Facebook message from an old friend.

The message was an invitation to get in on the most wonderful new opportunity (can you smell the network marketing opportunity about to drop on me?).

My buddy was pretty convincing. She didn’t take no for an answer. She assured me that it was the ground floor and she wasn’t inviting just anybody (appealing to the ‘early adopter’ in me while tossing in a dose of scarcity to pull at me a little bit).

As a matter of fact, she was meeting with a former/current insurance agent at a Starbucks around the corner from my office the next morning (which would be this morning). Couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

I was tempted. Yes. I was tempted with the Seacret Revolution (click on the link at your own peril as you might get swept away with the business opportunity of a lifetime).

But then it hit me. I have two and a half blogs. I have a full-time sales and marketing position at a wonderful firm. I’m assisting a couple people with social media marketing efforts. More importantly, I have a family that I love and a few home projects that need to get done.

If I say ‘Yes’ to this opportunity, I’m saying ‘No’ to my effectiveness in one or more of these other areas.

Something would have to give.

I then remembered Michael Hyatt’s recent podcast on his 10 top books of all time (and another podcast of his dedicated to the book Essentialism). In both Podcasts, Hyatt discusses Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less and this key idea:

When we say “no” to something, it gives us the opportunity to say “yes” to something else.

I love it when my epiphanies can be traced to content I’ve been consuming.

If I go to this 9am coffee to discuss this relationship marketing opportunity and get sucked in, I’m saying ‘No’ to being my best at my other responsibilities. Truth be told, I should exercise saying ‘No’ to a few of my current commitments. This fellow needs some margin.

We simply don’t have the mental, physical, and emotional bandwidth to say yes to everything.

The best way to say yes, is to say no.

I have no problem with people asking me for my time or energy or for my involvement. It’s on me to be protective and to filter new requests. That’s why we all need to be diligent around knowing and understanding our priorities. If someone presents us with a task or an ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ and it doesn’t fit within those priorities (or doesn’t truly pique our interest), then we must say no.

Audit Your “Yesses” Regularly

Something I’ve not been good at is auditing my commitments. Are there things I’m doing that I simply shouldn’t be doing?

What about you?

Are you over-burdened?

Does your schedule have margin?

Are you a “yes” person to the detriment of your personal health, your relationships, your family?

Audit your calendar and commitments to see.

Audit Your Clients

If you’re in sales, are you committing to prospects or clients for whom you can’t do your best work? If so, then make it a priority to start saying ‘No’ to those clients and prospects.

We don’t have to work with every person who can fog up a mirror. We can be selective. If we pile our books of business with clients that suck our energy, we can’t pour into those who appreciate what we do for them.

What Do You Need to Audit?

We could take this auditing and saying ‘no’ thing pretty far. Some of us might need to audit relationships, food choices, addictions, media, social media, or any number of things that battle against our ultimate goals and priorities.

What do you need to drop? What needs to take up less space in your world?

Learn to say ‘No’ so you can be all in with your ‘Yes’.

Until tomorrow…