Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

One of the questions I receive from business owners regularly is:  “Why don’t my clients take my advice?  I have their best interests at heart but they don’t want to listen to me.”

The answer lies not in what you say but in how you say it.  There are three specific steps that will help get people to put your good advice into practice.  They are:

1. Make an emotional appeal
2. Give them specific action steps to follow
3. Associate negative consequences with NOT following your advice

Here’s some additional detail on the steps listed above:

The Emotional Appeal – Ninety percent of all decisions that are made by humans in life are emotional decisions.  It is human nature to make decisions based upon our emotional reaction to a given situation and the JUSTIFY our decision with rational reasoning. 

This is even true in a business-to-business setting.  Once I was proposing a complex (and expensive) organizational effectiveness solution to a large multi-national company.  There was an involved bidding process that had my firm up against two large competitors.  My company nailed all of the presentations we gave to the decision-making board involved in this process.  Our solution was competitively priced.  We believed we were “a lock” to get the business.  When the decision was made, we found out the the deal was awarded to the highest priced competitor.  I asked for a meeting with the committee to debrief (mainly to find out why we were not selected so we could improve).  The head of the procurement committee responded with a statement that I will never forget.  She said: “Dave, your firm was a perfect fit in every way.  When we presented the proposals to the president of the company he told us that we needed to go with your competitor.  He said that his son played youth soccer with the president of the competing firm and he had a deep personal relationship with this man.  He believed that this relationship would help us receive better service and save us money in the long run.”

In the case highlighted above, the president’s emotional decision – justified by logic, trumped even the most compelling logical argument I could make.

When you make an appeal to someone to take your advice, focus on emotions such as trust, integrity and fear (more on that in a few paragraphs).  Emotions resonate with people.   That’s what they remember. 

Provide Specific Steps – We must make it easy for people to take the advice we provide.  There can be no ambiguity when we offer up our expertise. 

When you are taking a trip to a new place do you ever go on-line and print out a map and turn-by-turn directions?  Which portion of the printed guidance do you find easier to follow?  Most people respond that the turn-by-turn directions – the specific words - are easier to follow.  This is because our brain finds it easier to grasp the directions in small segments.  The map requires a specific visualization of the route and we all know that the map often does not accurately reflect the territory.

Giving people specific action steps to follow is a way to help them grasp one step at a time in a specific process.  It is far more likely that folks will listen to, and take advantage of, our guidance if we break it down into manageable chunks.

Clearly Articulate the Negative Consequences of NOT Following your Advice –  This is where fear comes in.  People are far more likely to take action to move AWAY from fear than they are to take action TOWARD pleasure.  This is just how we are wired.

One of my clients is a personal trainer.  He was having problems retaining clients after they went through the initial orientation session with him.  He made one seemingly minor change in his approach and he doubled his client base almost overnight.  At the outset of the orientation training session he wrote down the participant’s weight, hight and he calibrated their body fat.  He then proceeded to take them through the exercises in the gym that he recommended for them.  At the conclusion of the session he gave the participant an insurance actuarial chart that determined their life expectancy based upon their weight and their body fat.  Hen then circled the amount of years they were taking OFF of their life by being overweight.  The fear – in this case the fear of an early death – was enough to motivate over 80% of his clients to sign up with him for a 90–day training program.

Fear is healthy.  It keeps us from doing all kinds of stupid things that could harm us.  We can all learn how to use fear for our benefit in our personal lives as well as in our interactions with our clients.

Remember – these tips are only useful if you have the best interest of your clients in mind.  If you use them to manipulate your client, you may get them to take action in the short run but ultimately they will feel betrayed if they find out that you used them to make a quick buck.

Filed under: Behavior
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

You are responsible for your future. 

There are things you can do right now to make certain that you have everything you want in your business and in your career.

The first step in creating your future is to set goals for yourself and your business.

Here are some important things to keep in mind about goals:

Goals should be stated in the positive.  Goals must help you focus on a positive outcome.  A goal such as – Get out of Debt by January 2008 – is only going to serve to help keep you in debt.  Why?  Because your subconscious mind only focuses on the debt aspect of that statement.  A better goal is – Achieve Financial Freedom by January 2008. This goal focuses you on the positive aspects of this goal.

You must write your goals down.  A goal that is not written down is just an idea.  Once you write them down they are cemented in your mind.  Writing them down gives them a sense of permanence.  Taking this step commits you to focusing on the goals in your daily actions.

You must review your goals daily.  Reviewing your goals each and every single day is the only way to make certain that you will achieve them.  You become what you think about most.  If you focus on your goals on a daily basis you are more likely to seize upon opportunities that will bring you closer to achieving them. 

Focus on the outcome.  Don’t spend your time and energy worrying about how you will achieve your goal.  As you intensify your focus on making your goal a reality, the path will become evident.  It will literally reveal itself to you.  Many analytical people ask me how this happens.  There are a number of ways.  Some folks say that the universe aligns itself based upon the vibration you put out. Others say that your unconscious mind works diligently on your goal and steers you down the path toward success.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter how or why this happens.  Focusing on the outcome works.   

Visualize yourself achieving your goal.  See yourself being congratulated by friends and family for your success.  See yourself accepting the keys to your new home or new car (if that was your goal).  See yourself shaking hands with your new clients.  Visualize yourself in front of television cameras telling your story of success. You mind does not know the difference between visualization and reality.  This visualization will help you break down any barriers you may have (subconsciously) to the success you deserve.

Act as if you have already achieved your goal.  This point is often overlooked by people because they find it “hokey”.  You need to act as if you have already achieved your goal in order to make it a reality.  Do this for the same reasons I have listed above.  Breaking down your mental resistance is critical to making your goals a reality.  In addition, other people will begin to see you as already achieving your goal if you act as if you have already made it happen. This will lead them to offer you opportunities that will accelerate your progress.

You should celebrate progress toward goal achievement.  This step is often overlooked by business leaders.  As you progress down the path toward goal achievement you should take every opportunity to celebrate achievement as you progress toward making your goals a reality.  This step will help you keep the momentum going.

These seven tips are the basics to making your goals a reality.  Although they are the basics, few people practice them.  If you truly want success you will use these guidelines to make you goals a reality.

Filed under: Goals
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

We have had some server issues during the past couple of weeks.  At this point it looks like the issues are resolved.  Thanks for your patience.

Filed under: General Information
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

One of the best ways to create value is by being the person who “gets things started”.   People who can start things – projects, conversations, businesses etc. – are incredibly valuable.  Taking a vision and making it a reality is difficult.  Why is this? 

First, there is the overwhelming nature of having hundreds of tasks to accomplish.  Even the smallest project or business has thousands of details associated with it.  Getting wrapped up in those details is a trap that is just waiting for the new small business owner.  In order to get past this feeling of becoming overwhelmed,  I recommend focusing on just one of them each day.  Each day cross one thing off of your long-term “to do” list.  Before you know it, you will have five to ten major tasks accomplished.

Next is the need to sell.  Selling scares people.  Many entrepreneurs think that they must learn some magic technique before they go out and offer their services.  In truth, there is no magic technique.  You just need to go out and listen to the needs of your potential clients and help fill them.

Then there are the self-limiting beliefs that make many entrepreneurs feel as though they don’t belong in business or they don’t deserve success.  Sometimes these feelings are present in our conscious mind and sometimes they are below the surface in our subconscious.   These feelings must be dismissed immediately and dramatically.  One of the exercises I ask my clients to do involves writing their negative thoughts down on a piece of paper and then burning that paper.  As the smoke rises up into the air, their negative thoughts and feelings evaporate with the smoke.

Finally, there is good old fashioned laziness.  It is easier to do nothing.  You can’t allow this feeling to control your behavior.  You need to break free of it early and often.

What is the common denominator in all of these items?  You.  The power to control the development of your new business lies in your hands.  You must make this happen.  It is your destiny.

Filed under: Start-up Fever
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