My Boss Checked Out

Are you wondering what to do when your boss checks out?

Have you been working steady in your job, realized progress, and then, one day, out of the blue, your boss just stops showing up to work? Or, when they do show up, they seem only half-interested in what's happening? Maybe they take long lunches. They leave early. They come in late. Worse-yet, maybe they come to work with a hang-over or other problem. If this is your situation, your boss has checked out. For whatever reason: laziness, drugs, alcohol, other jobs, side-interests, or an emotional/mental problem, a boss might not be "all there" when we need them. If this is happening regularly, you may have a problem.

There are four strategies I can recommend to you if your boss is checked out:

1. Stick it out.


First of all, your boss may be straightened out for you. Just keep your eyes forward, ears back, and insulate yourself from the problems and do your job anyway. Believe me, if YOU notice your boss blowing it, other people notice, too. And, surely, one of them is likely to complain to your boss's boss and get your boss transferred, promoted, or fired. It might as well be them, right?

This is the strategy I recommend if you think (a) your boss is just going through a rough time and history shows they are loyal, committed, and hard-working in the past and (b) you have reason to believe they'll get it together.

The exception: your boss' performance directly impacts your ability to earn money. If this is your situation, I'm going to recommend you consider even stronger the second strategy.

2. Find another place to work.


Second, if your boss MIGHT NOT get it together; or worse, your boss NEVER HAD had his/her act together, then you might strongly consider looking for another place to work. This is especially good advice if your boss flaking out causes you to lose money. I've seen commission salespeople completely tank when the boss is gone or out of the building. If you're losing money due to the poor performance of a manager, then you might want to save yourself (and your pocketbook) the pain and look for something better now.

3. Take action with your boss's boss.


Now, if you're someone who likes to battle problems at work, then you could consider being the one to blow the whistle on your boss. I suppose the question is: "Do you like your boss?" If the answer is "yes," then don't do this at any cost! If the answer is "no", then first consider if it is likely that someone else is having issues with the boss, too. If you can maneuver them to blow the whistle, that would be preferred. Otherwise, you could consider taking action. In my history, I've never been the one to blow the whistle on a boss. Why? Because I don't want people blowing the whistle on me if I ever have a tough time. I once went through a rough time at a good company, in a good job, after my divorce. My work suffered. I wasn't able to focus or commit very well. And, I'm pretty sure somebody blew the whistle, because my boss started treating me differently. It was hard and I finally moved on to a different job, but it took two jobs later to get back in a good position again. So, having been there at the belly of suffering and still needing work, I wouldn't blow the whistle on someone struggling with an injury or emotion problem. If that's your bag, so be it, I just don't want the karma.

4. Start your own company.


Of course, there is one other course of action: start a company or open a private consulting practice. If this is your situation, where you've already had cash-flow coming in from a moonlighting job, then you could consider this option at this time. Otherwise, I'd suggest you get something more stable going first. Once your side-project makes enough to pay your bills and demands too much time to do everything well, THEN make the switch to your private practice.

Evaluate your situation carefully. If you find that you need to find a new job, well, at least you've got good reason to do so. Find a way to go after something more challenging so you can make that your reason for leaving and make sure you leave on good terms with the boss and team you're leaving behind. You'll be happier if you leave good "karma" behind and focus on positive change for the future. If you're sticking it out, just remember that loose lips sink ships and keep your lips sealed about your boss. Your boss won't think it was you that fingered them if you give them no reason to think so.

Having our boss check out and lose interest or simply just stop caring makes it harder to work, but it isn't impossible. Stay focused. Get your work done. Make sure you don't blame your boss and do the best you can to get through this time. One thing is for sure: change is likely on the way! Rise above it and you'll be better for the effort.
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Copyright © 1999-2008 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. SUBSCRIBE.

Selling Tip: Don't Talk Past The Sale

Today I pitched a solution to a potential customer (couple) who, in my gut, felt like they were ready to buy. However, I noticed that as the clock ticked off the seconds, and seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into an hour past the close, that the potential buyer went from LOVING my solution to being AFRAID of how they were going to handle the budgeted cost of my solution. It happens that fast!

One thing is for sure, if your client drops out of the "ether" effect of loving you and/or loving your service, your odds of completing the sale drop significantly. Certainly, once the client goes into "fear mode" their "fight or flight" life protection response system will over-rule their desire to purchase your service.

Think I'm wrong? One industry I've consulted and sold for, timeshare resort sales, has performed specific tests to determine the window of opportunity, and found that once you've pitched your solution, you basically have about twenty (20) to thirty (30) minutes of optimum selling time where the agreement is most likely to happen. Once you go beyond that window, your opportunity of success drops, by huge percentages, rather quickly.

Do you know what the opportunity of close success is for your industry?

If you haven't figured it out, figure out how to be more efficient, at the least. Because one thing is for sure: once you go past the window of opportunity, you may never get that opportunity again.

Take advantage of time and use it wisely and you're sure to close more sales.
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One World: Where In The World Is Matt?

Here is a fun and enlightening video by a sponsor who uses a rather subtle approach to marketing. Considering the number of countries (42) and number of dancers (lost count) in this video, I'd have to give this video my award for 2008's "Viral Video" -- get this: over 5 Million Views in less than one month on YouTube, and now Matt Harding's update from 2005's incredibly viral video did it again:



Special mention for sharing this video goes to Patrick Byers of Responsible Marketing and Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist over at LinkedIn.

You'll notice the StrideGum.com credit at the back of the video. For those of you in marketing, I'm sure you see the $$$. How can we create a viral video of our own adventures?
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Copyright © 1999-2008 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. StrideGum and Where is Matt Harding are trademark/copyright their respective owners. SUBSCRIBE.

Team Building Strategies with Andrew Long, CEO of Critical Pathfinders

Join us for the ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Radio Show today on "Team Building Strategies" with special guest, Andrew Long, CEO of Critical Pathfinders:

When: July 9, 2008 at 2:00 PM PST / 5:00 PM EST

Topic: Team Building Strategies

How to Participate:

Call (724) 444-7444, enter show 37798 # 1 #
Visit http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/37798

Description:

Many companies recognize the importance of team building, especially in today's competitive labor market. Yet, most companies are highly inefficient in their approach to team building. Team Building expert, Andrew Long, shares some invaluable insights on team building to save your organization time and money. Andrew's company offers corporate adventure and training for corporate teams. Andrew's last show on team building was very informative and enjoyable - dial in: you'll kick yourself if you miss this one!

Call in - it's simple & easy, fun & educational to join the call and ask your questions!!

Listen Now:

What Are You Doing? Grow Traffic To Your Blog With Twitter

Have you noticed a new trend in social networking? A quick-blog tool called Twitter calls the phenomenon of sharing what you are doing "twitting", which refers to the online social phenomenon of answering the question "What are you doing?"

Through Twitter, you can grow traffic to your blog, on top of inform followers what you're doing. Many bloggers, journalists, and individuals are using Twitter to share updates, ranging from eating coffee, walking the dog, watching a movie, or working on a new project.

What does TWITTER look like? Here's a screen shot that shares a few ideas about Twitter:


I, myself, use Twitter. While it is possible to post updates in the "What are you doing?" field, I don't use Twitter for that purpose. I use Twitter purely to share my blog feeds? Why? Heck, it's another way people can connect with me and know what's going on with the blogs, why not!? Notice the "Want to follow someone" comment I wrote by the "find and follow" menu option? When people sign-in to follow my twit feeds Twitter offers a way for them to know, instantly, when I've posted something new they care about. Some of these followers DON'T subscribe to blogs, so in my opinion, twitting, to the blogger, is a way of expanding your audience.



Notice the screen shot (above) from Facebook? I circled the question there "What are you doing right now?" provided by Facebook. You see, the "twitting" phenomenon has spread beyond twitter. The more common and easier to use function of twitting, to me, is through other established social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Plaxo. I'll show you each of them. I've had many people respond to these TWITS when they follow me and various posts I make to my social networks.

I'm currently giving an answer to the question "What Are You Doing" on Facebook (below):


See how I answered Scott Andrews "is writing a post about twitter on the ARRiiVE blog (http://arriive.blogspot.com)? Cool, huh?! People are now directed from Facebook to my blog at ARRiiVE. Now, I'm using the power of twitting and social networking to use as a passive marketing tool (although I consciously made the effort). Sweet, isn't it?

I do the same thing with my band, BODY. MySpace uses things called "Status" and "Mood" to enable you to twit about your latest feelings and what you're doing. It's great for bands and I recommend you use it for business, too. Here's an example of one I posted for http://www.myspace.com/body last night:

You'll see under the status and mood menu my update there, "Body gets excited when people scream. Mood: rejuvenated" for kicks and giggles.

Now, as much as I'd ALSO like to update you on my Plaxo social network, for some reason Plaxo is having browser problems that offer up an unexplained error. While I've tried resolving this with their customer service for the past two months, you can imagine the frustration I felt when I tried to show you my Plaxo update:

Oh well. So Web 2.0 isn't perfect! I contacted Plaxo and their support team said the problem was my browser. I switched browsers to FireFox and still get their error. They say it is because I'm in too many groups. I thought that was the whole point of Plaxo Pulse! Oh well. So Web 2.0 isn't perfect! Perhaps, that's why they call their social networking site "beta" software, huh?

Anyway, if you want to maximize gaining quick following, use Twitter. Use the twit functions on social networks, too. I've found that people are interested in what I'm doing and they often read the stuff I put in there and comment on it. Make sure, too, to publish your blog's RSS feed through the social networks and twit feeds as it will grow your blog visitors and help you increase exposure that way, too.
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10 Ways To Improve Your Online Sales

If you're seeking ways to boost both online and face-to-face sales of products and services, then you might want to know some of the top marketing expert's suggestions.

I've put together a powerful list of 10 simple and easy ways you can improve your online sales, starting right now.

10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR ONLINE SALES RESULTS:

1. Match the product with the message.

A more fancy version of this is if you've been sharing a story about how the cars at your new automobile dealership offer more green options and higher energy efficiency, you might want to link to the top-three selling automobiles you carry that offer greener solutions and demonstrate the impact on the environment or global carbon emissions by choosing the car you offer. A simple graph that shows the difference over the automobiles life, then directing the user towards the car that meets their desired impact, would steer them towards an easier shopping experience.

A less-complicated sales pitch that matches the product with the message would be where, at AspireNow, I wrote an article about how to live your life more successfully. Within that article, I offered a link to a Life Purpose program to help people get more from the interactive workbook and audio CD.

If your customer is searching for tea health benefits, then you ought to offer a way to buy your tea based upon the highest health benefit, depending upon the type of tea you offer. Match what they seek to what you deliver and you'll raise sales by over 30%.

2. Offer a "product bundle" solution.

One of my clients shared with me today that when they included a "bundled" solution of a free mug with any double-order of their products that their average sale price went from $15 to $50 per order. I like 300% return solutions, don't you? So, offer a bundled solution. You'll gain more business in less time.

3. Present a down-sell opportunity when they don't buy the bundle.

If you're seeking a way to capture the people who balk at the "bundle" solution, put a pop-up window when they click out of the store at any point to offer them a chance to give feedback on why they didn't buy OR buy a single product at a discounted price. Studies I've seen show this technique provides valuable feedback into the sales process AND delivers 30% higher sales results of the single item you sell.

4. Offer repeat purchasers of the bundle solution a chance to buy an up-sell.

If people are clicking on the bundle and they've ordered this before, you might then offer an opportunity for the user to buy a bulk huge up-sell. For example, if they buy two + the bonus, they pay $50. But for $500, $5000, or $15,000, they can qualify for extra discounts (or more products) and pay less per order. This is the concept of Costco and other big-box stores in action. People like the option to "super-size" their order - especially when they're buying on a corporate budget. The best time to offer an up-sell is during repeat purchases of a popular product.

Also, if they bought the single product before, make sure they know they can buy the bundle or up-sell bulk, too, if they want to super-size their order, and save time and money.

5. Offer a company purchase plan or corporate purchase program.

If you're selling products or services purchased by corporations, you might consider a company purchase plan. If they sign-up for the corporate purchase agreement (pre-approved orders), they get an opportunity to buy in bulk at a discount. It's basically just another flavor of the up-sell, but targeted towards the corporate purchaser who likes to order off a purchase order or within standard guidelines and where the buyer gets rewarded for saving the company money. Marry the two and you've got a recipe for success! This technique is used by companies like Staples and OfficeMax, but why not for products and services a corporation might buy, like things in the break room, or things they frequently buy or provide for customers. Examples that come to mind include coffee, tea, soda, water, juice, food, shirts, hats, and more.

Are you enjoying this article? Listen to the radio show for extra tips and suggestions, with ideas and stories by the author and CEO of ARRiiVE: Business Solutions, Scott Andrews!

6. Offer a "friends and family" plan.

Network marketers are masters at selling to their friends and family members. Why shouldn't you, too? Give your clients an opportunity to refer their friend(s) and get bonus products or discounts. When you utilize this type of discount or "scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" policy, you're taking advantage of the best form of marketing there is: word of mouth. The timeshare industry is great at capturing referrals at the point of sale. When a visitor purchases a timeshare vacation package, they then offer them a "free vacation" or additional vacation time if they simply refer five to ten family members and friends. When is the best time to capture the referral? When the customer buys! Make sure you don't miss the opportunity and give people a reward if they refer a friend or family member. This is the concept Seth Godin talks about in his marketing book about starting an "Idea Virus" for your company.

7. Offer cross-sell opportunities within the shopping cart when they've already selected another item.

By cross-selling, don't automatically make them choose the cross-sell. Just offer it and say "other customers found these items useful" or "other popular products" or "products that match this product's color" or something similar. When you offer cross-sell opportunities, you can raise your gross margin from 6% to 18% simply by suggesting some products that offer you a higher margin from the loss-leader they first put in their cart. I used this technique once with selling computers. I discounted the primary CPU, Monitor, and Printer to 6%, but left the peripheral products off the price list. Printers have lower margins and offer you little profit. Print cartridges, on the other hand, have considerably higher margins. Service contracts, software protection programs (virus protection) and software renewal licenses offer high margins. Offer these at the point of sale and you'll increase your sales and profit percentage per customer dramatically. The customer bought from me, and I'd always ask them if they wanted to add the peripheral products with margins between 28% to 50%. As a result, I increased my profit per sale from 6% to 18%. Triple the profit is a number that works for me!

The best time to offer a cross-sell is during the order checkout process. This process is utilized by Apple Store quite effectively.

8. Put items on sale at the top of the page and at the bottom of the page.

People like getting a good deal, so show the sale items above the fold and near the top of any page where you list those products. When you walk down a mall, you'll notice that many stores will put their "on sale today" sign in their window. You walk in the store and a clerk says "How can I help you today?" You can say "I'm seeking the item on sale from the window." They then can say "Oh, I love that skirt! Did you see the cute top that matches it perfectly?" and then they're interacting with you. It ought to be the same online.

The back of the store also will include any seasonal deals. Are you including both specials and seasonal deals in your pricing strategies? If so, make sure to sprinkle some of the hot deals above the fold, then additional deals at the bottom of the page so you catch additional orders on their way out. In addition, make sure you include bundles and bulk purchases near the sale product links, too, or in the store ordering page.

9. Offer alternative solutions.

Is the item out of stock? Sometimes, you can still capture a sale by suggesting a similar product that might meet the need. Don't leave your customers empty without a suggestion for an alternative solution!

I cracked up when I saw Frank Kern use the marketing ploy "Buy this e-book today. We're only offering 101 of these before they'll be sold out and I'll never offer that one again!" Now, whether or not Frank stopped sales at 101 or not (I highly doubt it) is beside the point. He simply put urgency into the mix. However, what if he did stop selling the e-book? He could offer you an ALTERNATIVE that perhaps costs less and offers more, and make you feel like you got an ever better deal, right? Don't leave your customer holding an empty bag. Give them something to put in the bag. Perhaps a different color, flavor, size, or type of product will fit the bill. Maybe they don't want black, they want white. Maybe they want the opposite of what they bought. Whatever you do, just give them a choice and you'll have at least a chance to sell something, versus nothing. Give them an alternative and you'll increase your sales, guaranteed.

BONUS TIP:

In addition, one step many companies miss is when a product is returned. If you are returning one product, can we suggest an alternative that might work better for you? By simply adding this sales-oriented step into the customer service return process, you can capture an additional 5 - 25% sales and recoup the lost business. The alternative product at the point of return minimizes your cost of product returns and also offers an extra step in customer service that many customers will appreciate.

10. Make the customer's navigation of your site and store functional so it is easy to buy from you.

How many steps does it take to complete a sale? Is it easy to sign-up for your newsletter? Can they register to buy in one easy process?

Think of this scenario: Two stores selling the same product offer different ways to purchase. Store A requires the visitor to go to the bottom of the third page and then navigate through three store pages in order to purchase the hottest new pair of shoes. Store B has the hottest shoes on the first page, above the fold, and the client is completing their order by their third page, in total. Who do you think sells more shoes per visitor? Right! Store B.

Make sure you offer an purchasing process that makes it easier to do business with you! If you're seeking help with your sales process or online selling presence, contact a professional, such as ARRiiVE Business Solutions (Call 805-459-6939) to help you improve your processes to match industry best-practice solutions.

If you're missing any of these opportunities to increase your sales, you're missing out on revenue, profit, and additional orders. Take the time to shore-up your ordering process and see if you can't capture a higher percentage of success over the next year by following these steps to success!

Listen to the ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Radio Show on "10 Ways To Improve Your Online Sales" with special bonus tip by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions:

Executive Goal Setting and Achieving

I recently dug back into my process of setting goals that enabled me to realize 70% of my goals each year from 1996 - 2001. For some reason, I got away from that system in 2001, and spent several years not achieving things quite the same way.

This year, I re-implemented my old high-success system into my goal-setting approach to daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, and 10-year goals. Yes, I'm that extensive.

The whole list may be found at AspireNow's blog. However, only a subset of those goals apply to my corporate goal-setting. I DO suggest you review the whole list, because many executives make the mistake of focusing ONLY on their corporate goals and then wonder 10 years down the road why they have no life balance. Don't make that mistake!

A proven process for executive goal setting:

If you're wanting to zero in on your corporate and team goals, I DO suggest setting aside some time for these goals. This article is also featured on one of ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Radio Shows:

Listen to the ARRiiVE Show

Check out the recent show I recorded at ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Show on "Striking While The Fire Is Hot" and "The Power of a DROP" Two powerful sales techniques reviewed in one show!

To listen to the show, visit: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/37798

Also, sign up for our blog news using the RSS or Email links in the top-right of this blog, and sign up for the AspireNow Newsletter to be kept informed about future show dates!
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Copyright © 1999-2008 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. SUBSCRIBE.

Executive Team Building - Don't Waste Their Time

In team-building exercises for executives, one of the biggest challenges is not in planning the event itself, but in properly structuring the activities and putting thought into how to facilitate your event.

It is not enough to plan a date to meet, invite your leadership team, schedule an outside expert, and then figure you'll discuss key strategic subjects and expect anything useful to result.

You can all go play golf together and you might get a little better at golf. Or, you can spend three days rafting down rivers and you might eventually get better at rafting down rivers!

When planning executive team building, more attention is often paid to the executive retreat location, the recreational activities and food choices than the substance and exercises to create results to the team's challenges.

Facilitated exercises must be more than justification for expenditures. They must be the core of the event!

If your company spends for a luxury venue but fails to set objectives, goes soft on facilitation, and dedicates only three hours or a half day for the key exercises, then I'd argue that you're really not doing the executive retreat to accomplish anything other than having fun together. There's nothing wrong with having fun - we all need to have fun as leaders in business just as in other parts of life.

But take the extra steps to ensure your executive retreat is planned properly, executed flawlessly, and thoroughly debriefed, and you'll likely learn a lasting result that can be developed further each year you get the team together.

If you're seeking a resource for your executive event, consider utilizing my friend Andrew Long's company, Critical Path Finders, to help you plan and facilitate your retreat. He's got the right perspective and does an excellent job!
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Copyright © 1999-2008 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. SUBSCRIBE.

How Bloggers Make Money On The Net

Have you been reading about bloggers making money online and thinking about jumping on the blog bandwagon?

Before you do, consider this:

Less than 1% of blogs make any significant money.

Okay, now that you know this, you might want to know what the successful bloggers do to break free from the pack of other bloggers and make more money.

How bloggers make money from web blogs:

1. Successful bloggers use a clean and simple design.

With a design that is easy to navigate and makes it easy to (a) subscribe, (b) follow, (c) read, and (d) drill down into articles, a blog is highly more likely to keep the visitors they attract longer and also draw more repeat visitors.

2. Successful bloggers provide high quality, original, and unique content.

If you're providing information on video cameras, you might provide a series of articles reviewing cameras. Other times, you can provide information comparing one type of camera to another. In other blog posts, you might highlight how people capture images using new techniques. You may engage bloggers by holding contests. You could request a guest post. Or, you might ask other people for feedback about an idea. The more interactive you make your blog, the higher the traffic you'll receive.

3. Successful bloggers publish consistently and often.

I've noticed that the most successful bloggers publish between 5 and 20 articles per week. That's a lot of writing. They are also consistent. I think there are ways to boost production twofold that won't take that much more time, by writing more reviews of books, technology, and techniques. We'll see how this technique pays off in the upcoming months.

4. Successful bloggers optimize by spreading the word.

You can spread the word for your blog by burning your feed to various feedburning engines. Another technique is to post into forums and other blogs, and link back to your blog. Last, you can also use technology, like blog rolls, or directories, like Stumble Upon, Digg, Blog Carnivals, Facebook and other means, to promote the traffic to your blog.

These are the tenements of the blogs I've seen that make money. Most bloggers don't get immediately success. The most successful blogs I've seen took months to build. Some of the best blogs took years before they took off. And, the rules of the game have changed. Many new blogs are taking longer to reach the tipping point because so many more people are blogging. Commit to a long-term strategy and follow your plan regularly, and your blog is much more likely to enable you to make money from your blog.
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Copyright © 1999-2008 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. SUBSCRIBE.