4 Where will your support come from? Build a support network. You already have the team but are you utilizing it well? (Obviously not or you wouldn’t’ have this problem, would you?) Better yet are you leading your army? Are you General Sherman or Captain Crunch?

Good leaders are not isolationists. They aren’t despots. Good leaders establish support networks and then rely on them to take some of the load. Good leaders draw ideas from those around them and then weave them all into the fabric of the opportunity. Good leaders like good actors will know their co-stars and be highly aware of their nuances, being able to play off of them, using every look and every move to enthrall their audience. Good leaders are only good if they know their roles and their cast.

You already have the support staff. Build from within. Build moral, build esteem, build unity. How, you ask? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not in your software.

5 Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success. So you’ve asked the right questions, you have enlisted your team members, you’ve developed an action plan.

Now you are determining the cost, rallying support and measuring your target, your actions and your progress.

Utilize your reporti

BUSINESS, is selling to customers. Let’s face it. Even I’m selling you something I‘m selling you on an idea. It's free... but I’m selling. I know you’ll benefit from it because it’s information and we all need specific information to profit these days. And when you profit, I profit.

Think about this.

·Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing. Sir Ralph Richardson

Hey, it really is a Tough World Out There! (That's my book title) Yes, business is getting more and more complex by the minute. But does it have to be extreme?

The short answer is NO, it doesn’t.

But still, the fact of the matter is that 50% of all customers leave their supplier within a year or two. So who is kidding who? Is the Buyer kidding the Seller or the Seller kidding the Buyer? Who is doing what, wrong? Why the fickle finger of fate in so many fine and frustrated faces? Oh, oh, which finger is that? Darn.

You probably work for (or own) a company who is facing this exact problem. You are losing clients. Customers are ditching you like unfaithful lovers at Mardi Gras.

So what are you doing about it? What steps are you taking to resolve this colossal negative predicament?

Well at least you’ve recognized there’s a problem but hold on to your hat there, Fireball. Before you wade in and take wild physical action, you need to take a look at a few things before you can even think of knocking down walls.

I know you think you’ve heard this all before in a hundred different formats …well, maybe you should listen this time? In simple terms, how about letting your brain kick in before the rest of your anatomy, okay with you?

Nothing happens on it’s own, you have to make it happen. Stop, step back, dissociate your head of all of the technical wizardry and complex software you’ve spent a bundle on in the past few years and follow these few simple steps.

Read this first. 1. Question yourself about your business issues. Sit down and write out your thoughts. Cover everything you can think of. 2. Having identified the problems as you see them, obtain a second opinion or even a third. Establish and propose an action plan. 3. Review your action plan with a partner or partners and calculate what it would cost you in dollars and cents to implement the needed changes. 4. Identify your support network. Map out where your support will come from and what they will do. 5. Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success.

So did you like the quotation from Sir Ralph Richardson? No, it’s no act, this world of Selling, but there definitely IS a good deal of role playing and following scripts. Actually, now you think of it, Sales can be likened to a good play … or even a bad one for that matter. The leading character (your top sales person) fills the marquee,draws the crowds, establishes ambiance, sets mood and tone, satisfies the fans. Your star will shine alone a short while. Very soon you must bring in supporting actors and actresses.

The cast supports the hero or heroine. In the analogy, the cast is the rest of the company, the support staff are the workers behind the scene, the crews. All are important, all play a role in the success of the play.

Enter real life, real business.

Now what have you come up with? You should have answered questions like this but gone even deeper.

1 Question yourself. Sit down and write out your thoughts. For example: Why are your customers leaving you? YOUR ANSWER What is your turn over rate? (it’s called “churn” these days right?) What is this customer turnover costing you? What can you physically change to reverse this costly trend? How soon can you reasonably expect to see a turn around? (you’ll have many more thoughts but these are some of the basics)

2 Having identified the problems as you see them, establish an action plan. OK, so you are the Owner, the President, the Manager, the Supervisor, the VP or the CEO. Not to belittle your station but no man is an island or a mountain and you shouldn’t try to be. We tend to forget that no-one has built a pyramid in thousands of years for a very good reasons. Pyramids are costly and inefficient. Pyramids are pass?.

However, if you invert that pyramid and adjust to that inversion, you, my friend, will succeed beyond your wildest expectations. If you know how, it's simple. Assemble the team. Draw from the team. It needn’t always be you who has the brainstorms. And keep in mind that it doesn’t always have to be a brand new wheel … maybe all you have to do is balance the old one.

Don’t get me wrong. Your job is critical. As Owner, President, Manager, Supervisor, VP or CEO … it is YOUR job to come up with and inspire others to come up with, new ideas. It’s definitely up to you to make them happen.

How well do you know your company? How well do you know your cast? How well do your cast know their lines? How efficient are your backstage workers? Do you even know their names?

Find out.

3 What will it cost you in dollars and cents to implement the needed changes? First of all, remove any negative thinking from your mind. Don’t even remotely consider that you can’t afford it. Don’t think how much your sales team is costing you as it is. Don’t dwell on all of the accounts that have slipped away from you in the past five years.

Look at your staff, your new goals, your strengths, and what you can do with what you have. I could show you how your new awareness wouldn’t cost you a cent but will pay big dividends. There will be no need for wage or commission cutting. All you need to know, is your own business.

4 Where will your support come from? Build a support network. You already have the team but are you utilizing it well? (Obviously not or you wouldn’t’ have this problem, would you?) Better yet are you leading your army? Are you General Sherman or Captain Crunch?

Good leaders are not isolationists. They aren’t despots. Good leaders establish support networks and then rely on them to take some of the load. Good leaders draw ideas from those around them and then weave them all into the fabric of the opportunity. Good leaders like good actors will know their co-stars and be highly aware of their nuances, being able to play off of them, using every look and every move to enthrall their audience. Good leaders are only good if they know their roles and their cast.

You already have the support staff. Build from within. Build moral, build esteem, build unity. How, you ask? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not in your software.

5 Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success. So you’ve asked the right questions, you have enlisted your team members, you’ve developed an action plan.

Now you are determining the cost, rallying support and measuring your target, your actions and your progress.

Utilize your reportin

I know you think you’ve heard this all before in a hundred different formats …well, maybe you should listen this time? In simple terms, how about letting your brain kick in before the rest of your anatomy, okay with you?

Nothing happens on it’s own, you have to make it happen. Stop, step back, dissociate your head of all of the technical wizardry and complex software you’ve spent a bundle on in the past few years and follow these few simple steps.

Read this first. 1. Question yourself about your business issues. Sit down and write out your thoughts. Cover everything you can think of. 2. Having identified the problems as you see them, obtain a second opinion or even a third. Establish and propose an action plan. 3. Review your action plan with a partner or partners and calculate what it would cost you in dollars and cents to implement the needed changes. 4. Identify your support network. Map out where your support will come from and what they will do. 5. Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success.

So did you like the quotation from Sir Ralph Richardson? No, it’s no act, this world of Selling, but there definitely IS a good deal of role playing and following scripts. Actually, now you think of it, Sales can be likened to a good play … or even a bad one for that matter. The leading character (your top sales person) fills the marquee,draws the crowds, establishes ambiance, sets mood and tone, satisfies the fans. Your star will shine alone a short while. Very soon you must bring in supporting actors and actresses.

The cast supports the hero or heroine. In the analogy, the cast is the rest of the company, the support staff are the workers behind the scene, the crews. All are important, all play a role in the success of the play.

Enter real life, real business.

Now what have you come up with? You should have answered questions like this but gone even deeper.

1 Question yourself. Sit down and write out your thoughts. For example: Why are your customers leaving you? YOUR ANSWER What is your turn over rate? (it’s called “churn” these days right?) What is this customer turnover costing you? What can you physically change to reverse this costly trend? How soon can you reasonably expect to see a turn around? (you’ll have many more thoughts but these are some of the basics)

2 Having identified the problems as you see them, establish an action plan. OK, so you are the Owner, the President, the Manager, the Supervisor, the VP or the CEO. Not to belittle your station but no man is an island or a mountain and you shouldn’t try to be. We tend to forget that no-one has built a pyramid in thousands of years for a very good reasons. Pyramids are costly and inefficient. Pyramids are pass?.

However, if you invert that pyramid and adjust to that inversion, you, my friend, will succeed beyond your wildest expectations. If you know how, it's simple. Assemble the team. Draw from the team. It needn’t always be you who has the brainstorms. And keep in mind that it doesn’t always have to be a brand new wheel … maybe all you have to do is balance the old one.

Don’t get me wrong. Your job is critical. As Owner, President, Manager, Supervisor, VP or CEO … it is YOUR job to come up with and inspire others to come up with, new ideas. It’s definitely up to you to make them happen.

How well do you know your company? How well do you know your cast? How well do your cast know their lines? How efficient are your backstage workers? Do you even know their names?

Find out.

3 What will it cost you in dollars and cents to implement the needed changes? First of all, remove any negative thinking from your mind. Don’t even remotely consider that you can’t afford it. Don’t think how much your sales team is costing you as it is. Don’t dwell on all of the accounts that have slipped away from you in the past five years.

Look at your staff, your new goals, your strengths, and what you can do with what you have. I could show you how your new awareness wouldn’t cost you a cent but will pay big dividends. There will be no need for wage or commission cutting. All you need to know, is your own business.

4 Where will your support come from? Build a support network. You already have the team but are you utilizing it well? (Obviously not or you wouldn’t’ have this problem, would you?) Better yet are you leading your army? Are you General Sherman or Captain Crunch?

Good leaders are not isolationists. They aren’t despots. Good leaders establish support networks and then rely on them to take some of the load. Good leaders draw ideas from those around them and then weave them all into the fabric of the opportunity. Good leaders like good actors will know their co-stars and be highly aware of their nuances, being able to play off of them, using every look and every move to enthrall their audience. Good leaders are only good if they know their roles and their cast.

You already have the support staff. Build from within. Build moral, build esteem, build unity. How, you ask? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not in your software.

5 Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success. So you’ve asked the right questions, you have enlisted your team members, you’ve developed an action plan.

Now you are determining the cost, rallying support and measuring your target, your actions and your progress.

Utilize your reporti

The cast supports the hero or heroine. In the analogy, the cast is the rest of the company, the support staff are the workers behind the scene, the crews. All are important, all play a role in the success of the play.

Enter real life, real business.

Now what have you come up with? You should have answered questions like this but gone even deeper.

1 Question yourself. Sit down and write out your thoughts. For example: Why are your customers leaving you? YOUR ANSWER What is your turn over rate? (it’s called “churn” these days right?) What is this customer turnover costing you? What can you physically change to reverse this costly trend? How soon can you reasonably expect to see a turn around? (you’ll have many more thoughts but these are some of the basics)

2 Having identified the problems as you see them, establish an action plan. OK, so you are the Owner, the President, the Manager, the Supervisor, the VP or the CEO. Not to belittle your station but no man is an island or a mountain and you shouldn’t try to be. We tend to forget that no-one has built a pyramid in thousands of years for a very good reasons. Pyramids are costly and inefficient. Pyramids are pass?.

However, if you invert that pyramid and adjust to that inversion, you, my friend, will succeed beyond your wildest expectations. If you know how, it's simple. Assemble the team. Draw from the team. It needn’t always be you who has the brainstorms. And keep in mind that it doesn’t always have to be a brand new wheel … maybe all you have to do is balance the old one.

Don’t get me wrong. Your job is critical. As Owner, President, Manager, Supervisor, VP or CEO … it is YOUR job to come up with and inspire others to come up with, new ideas. It’s definitely up to you to make them happen.

How well do you know your company? How well do you know your cast? How well do your cast know their lines? How efficient are your backstage workers? Do you even know their names?

Find out.

3 What will it cost you in dollars and cents to implement the needed changes? First of all, remove any negative thinking from your mind. Don’t even remotely consider that you can’t afford it. Don’t think how much your sales team is costing you as it is. Don’t dwell on all of the accounts that have slipped away from you in the past five years.

Look at your staff, your new goals, your strengths, and what you can do with what you have. I could show you how your new awareness wouldn’t cost you a cent but will pay big dividends. There will be no need for wage or commission cutting. All you need to know, is your own business.

4 Where will your support come from? Build a support network. You already have the team but are you utilizing it well? (Obviously not or you wouldn’t’ have this problem, would you?) Better yet are you leading your army? Are you General Sherman or Captain Crunch?

Good leaders are not isolationists. They aren’t despots. Good leaders establish support networks and then rely on them to take some of the load. Good leaders draw ideas from those around them and then weave them all into the fabric of the opportunity. Good leaders like good actors will know their co-stars and be highly aware of their nuances, being able to play off of them, using every look and every move to enthrall their audience. Good leaders are only good if they know their roles and their cast.

You already have the support staff. Build from within. Build moral, build esteem, build unity. How, you ask? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not in your software.

5 Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success. So you’ve asked the right questions, you have enlisted your team members, you’ve developed an action plan.

Now you are determining the cost, rallying support and measuring your target, your actions and your progress.

Utilize your reporti

However, if you invert that pyramid and adjust to that inversion, you, my friend, will succeed beyond your wildest expectations. If you know how, it's simple. Assemble the team. Draw from the team. It needn’t always be you who has the brainstorms. And keep in mind that it doesn’t always have to be a brand new wheel … maybe all you have to do is balance the old one.

Don’t get me wrong. Your job is critical. As Owner, President, Manager, Supervisor, VP or CEO … it is YOUR job to come up with and inspire others to come up with, new ideas. It’s definitely up to you to make them happen.

How well do you know your company? How well do you know your cast? How well do your cast know their lines? How efficient are your backstage workers? Do you even know their names?

Find out.

3 What will it cost you in dollars and cents to implement the needed changes? First of all, remove any negative thinking from your mind. Don’t even remotely consider that you can’t afford it. Don’t think how much your sales team is costing you as it is. Don’t dwell on all of the accounts that have slipped away from you in the past five years.

Look at your staff, your new goals, your strengths, and what you can do with what you have. I could show you how your new awareness wouldn’t cost you a cent but will pay big dividends. There will be no need for wage or commission cutting. All you need to know, is your own business.

4 Where will your support come from? Build a support network. You already have the team but are you utilizing it well? (Obviously not or you wouldn’t’ have this problem, would you?) Better yet are you leading your army? Are you General Sherman or Captain Crunch?

Good leaders are not isolationists. They aren’t despots. Good leaders establish support networks and then rely on them to take some of the load. Good leaders draw ideas from those around them and then weave them all into the fabric of the opportunity. Good leaders like good actors will know their co-stars and be highly aware of their nuances, being able to play off of them, using every look and every move to enthrall their audience. Good leaders are only good if they know their roles and their cast.

You already have the support staff. Build from within. Build moral, build esteem, build unity. How, you ask? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not in your software.

5 Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success. So you’ve asked the right questions, you have enlisted your team members, you’ve developed an action plan.

Now you are determining the cost, rallying support and measuring your target, your actions and your progress.

Utilize your reporti

4 Where will your support come from? Build a support network. You already have the team but are you utilizing it well? (Obviously not or you wouldn’t’ have this problem, would you?) Better yet are you leading your army? Are you General Sherman or Captain Crunch?

Good leaders are not isolationists. They aren’t despots. Good leaders establish support networks and then rely on them to take some of the load. Good leaders draw ideas from those around them and then weave them all into the fabric of the opportunity. Good leaders like good actors will know their co-stars and be highly aware of their nuances, being able to play off of them, using every look and every move to enthrall their audience. Good leaders are only good if they know their roles and their cast.

You already have the support staff. Build from within. Build moral, build esteem, build unity. How, you ask? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not in your software.

5 Measure your goal, measure your progress and measure your success. So you’ve asked the right questions, you have enlisted your team members, you’ve developed an action plan.

Now you are determining the cost, rallying support and measuring your target, your actions and your progress.

Utilize your reporting tools to quantify and record your improvement. As they say nowadays, benchmark it.

Summary Your customers have wandered away. Or should I say slinked away? Either way, they aren’t here anymore.

You’ve tried technology. You’ve reworked your policies and procedures. You’ve hired more outside talent. You’ve improved your website but still no luck. Customers are still leaving you.

No, it’s no good checking your deodorant again. It’s not the physical you but unfortunately, it is you.

The game is follow the leader and you are the leader. As a past leader you have failed the team. And to be fair, as a team they have probably failed the leader. Are you getting the picture here?

Churn is an internal problem and contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t cost much to fix.

As a Manager, CEO, Supervisor or President you are cast in the leading role. You and your staff have heard a lot of polite coughing of late. That IS the sound you hear when you call up the customers who doesn't purchase from you anymore isn’t it? Polite coughing? Like Ralph Richardson opined, the toughest role you have, is to keep that crowd from coughing.

Lozenge anyone?

(c) Malcolm Mills 2006