End of Year Hustle

The end of the entire year is quickly approaching.... which means it's time to pull out all stops and make things happen to pull off your December numbers. Our agency has been built on this entire philosophy that we simply "disagree" with the common thinking of how things are "supposed to go..." and we make things happen. For example, it's pretty common knowledge that Thanksgiving week is "slow" for many businesses or that companies should expect their numbers to be down.... but we simply disagree with that concept and ramp up everything to fill the pipeline, arm the sales team, get the staff producing, jam the schedules with appointments... you get the idea. This past Thanksgiving these actions resulted in our highest week ever in terms of gross income and the month of November ended up being our highest growth month ever in terms of gross income.

Winning is an attitude. Getting the results you want starts with your mental attitude toward things. If you "buy in" to the concept that it's slow around the holidays, well guess what.... it will be slow around the holidays for you. If you "buy in" to the concept that the economy is down or slow.... it will be down or slow for you. Sounds simple. It is. You don't need to make it any more complex than this. Focus your attitude to disagree with the conditions that exists and decide to flourish in spite of it all. Then work out the actions you need to take to blow up every area of your company to massive proportions. When it comes to this kind of planning, there's no such thing as enough. Plan HUGE and execute HUGE.

By doing this, your company will expand. People will flourish and the economy will thank you. So for the end of the year of 2011, bust out all of the barriers in the way and throw the throttle down. Make sales. Boom promo. Get your production team to produce in massive volume. Encourage a hustle and bustle attitude around the office. Shake things up and get the energy flowing. I can guarantee you that this will boom your numbers and prove that the rest of the world is wrong.... the holidays are a great time to do business!

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter Group of Companies

 

Agreement with Problems and Barriers

It's said that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. While it's probably debatable whether that is true or not, we'll use that as an analogy for this blog. The weakest link being your management team or executives going into agreement with the supposed problems or barriers put forth by the staff of the company. In other words, the actual problem is that anyone in an executive position is actually agreeing with the problems being suggested by your staff and by that agreement, making it a reality for the company which hurts many areas of the company resulting in bigger and bigger problems and crashed stats.

So the challenge is to get your management team and executives to disagree with the idea of obstacles, problems or barriers. They must be willing and able to listen to the staff and understand the problems but then be strong minded enough and strong willed to know that they are not really problems regardless of what is being said by the staff. They must push the staff toward handling the supposed problems. By disagreeing I mean, mentally not buying into the problem. For example, you may have a VP over the sales area who has a sales rep come to him or her to say that the reason there were no sales lined up today is because all of the prospects the sales rep is dealing with are getting answers back for various questions and so the sales rep needs to wait for the answers to close the deals. So in this scenario, the VP of Sales would become your weakest link and would add fuel to the fire to ultimately create bigger problems for the company by simply "buying in" to the idea presented by the sales rep why no sales could occur that day. The VP of Sales would then present that same idea to the senior executives who also buy in and the ripple effect continues to poison the other sales reps as the agreement of this idea continues to the point that sales have come to a grinding halt.

So the correct handling is for the VP of Sales to listen to the sales rep's reason and then immediately correct the sales rep to say something like, "I understand what you're saying here but the truth is, all sales are caused by us not by waiting on the prospect. We're the ones that make sales today or not. So, make a list of every way that you can get in touch with your prospects today to get an answer back today. Find any reason to call them as well as create a list of anyone you haven't called or need to get in touch with and then write the entire list down. Make a copy for me as well and then email and call everyone on the list today with an exact plan for what you will do to close each deal on the list today. I will check up with you to view progress at 10AM, 2PM and 5PM to see if you need anything. Thanks" This could be communicated many different ways but the point is, the VP of Sales would not express agreement or go into agreement with the idea that there won't be any sales today based on the reason put forth by the sales rep. The other sales reps would also see this as an example and realize that the VP operates this way and it will start to rub off on them as well.

A culture will develop around not agreeing with barriers or obstacles in the way of the company goals. The anchors to this strategy is your executives and management team. They have to be strong mentally to not be swayed by any of the staff's reasons so they become weak minded to agree with the problems or barriers. Their strength and complete disagreement will result in growth and expansion for the company. It will also result in a Spartan like team that pushes through all possible obstacles that present themselves.

To end with a great quote that forwards this concept, in the movie Mission Impossible 2, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins discuss the mission they need to take on and Commander Swanbeck says "you think this will be difficult?" Ethan Hunt replies "Very" in which Commander Swanbeck says "Well this is not mission difficult Mr. Hunt, this is mission impossible.... difficult should be a walk in the park for you."

So that is the frame of mind. Damn the barriers. Disagree.

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Agreement with Problems and Barriers

It's said that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. While it's probably debatable whether that is true or not, we'll use that as an analogy for this blog. The weakest link being your management team or executives going into agreement with the supposed problems or barriers put forth by the staff of the company. In other words, the actual problem is that anyone in an executive position is actually agreeing with the problems being suggested by your staff and by that agreement, making it a reality for the company which hurts many areas of the company resulting in bigger and bigger problems and crashed stats.

So the challenge is to get your management team and executives to disagree with the idea of obstacles, problems or barriers. They must be willing and able to listen to the staff and understand the problems but then be strong minded enough and strong willed to know that they are not really problems regardless of what is being said by the staff. They must push the staff toward handling the supposed problems. By disagreeing I mean, mentally not buying into the problem. For example, you may have a VP over the sales area who has a sales rep come to him or her to say that the reason there were no sales lined up today is because all of the prospects the sales rep is dealing with are getting answers back for various questions and so the sales rep needs to wait for the answers to close the deals. So in this scenario, the VP of Sales would become your weakest link and would add fuel to the fire to ultimately create bigger problems for the company by simply "buying in" to the idea presented by the sales rep why no sales could occur that day. The VP of Sales would then present that same idea to the senior executives who also buy in and the ripple effect continues to poison the other sales reps as the agreement of this idea continues to the point that sales have come to a grinding halt. 

So the correct handling is for the VP of Sales to listen to the sales rep's reason and then immediately correct the sales rep to say something like, "I understand what you're saying here but the truth is, all sales are caused by us not by waiting on the prospect. We're the ones that make sales today or not. So, make a list of every way that you can get in touch with your prospects today to get an answer back today. Find any reason to call them as well as create a list of anyone you haven't called or need to get in touch with and then write the entire list down. Make a copy for me as well and then email and call everyone on the list today with an exact plan for what you will do to close each deal on the list today. I will check up with you to view progress at 10AM, 2PM and 5PM to see if you need anything. Thanks" This could be communicated many different ways but the point is, the VP of Sales would not express agreement or go into agreement with the idea that there won't be any sales today based on the reason put forth by the sales rep. The other sales reps would also see this as an example and realize that the VP operates this way and it will start to rub off on them as well. 

A culture will develop around not agreeing with barriers or obstacles in the way of the company goals. The anchors to this strategy is your executives and management team. They have to be strong mentally to not be swayed by any of the staff's reasons so they become weak minded to agree with the problems or barriers. Their strength and complete disagreement will result in growth and expansion for the company. It will also result in a Spartan like team that pushes through all possible obstacles that present themselves. 

To end with a great quote that forwards this concept, in the movie Mission Impossible 2, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins discuss the mission they need to take on and Commander Swanbeck says "you think this will be difficult?" Ethan Hunt replies "Very" in which Commander Swanbeck says "Well this is not mission difficult Mr. Hunt, this is mission impossible.... difficult should be a walk in the park for you." 

So that is the frame of mind. Damn the barriers. Disagree. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Free Can Hurt Stability

In this day and age, it's common to have companies offering free services or operating on the "freemium" model but don't get disillusioned into the idea that it's the way to go - it isn't. At least, it's not the only way you want to operate. You have to work out a very clear plan that will pull in revenue to support anything that you plan to make free - someone has to pay for it after all.

One of the main problems with the free model is that it breeds a society that expects something for nothing. We start looking at our current economic state and it's easy to see that a lot of companies need to knuckle down and really focus on driving revenue. 

What you don't know and don't see behind the scenes of these freemium modeled companies is that they're heavily funded by venture capital which is acting like their revenue - only, it isn't revenue it's debt that is a liability strapping down the company. So the company needs to quickly figure out how to make enough revenue to cover the liability and fast. 

Meanwhile, the public (people) that do business with these companies with their free model start to crave more free service and expect everything free for nothing from them. This can really damage the economy as well as the operating basis of our society. 

So, we need to get back to a clean exchange system where the public expects to pay for a service and the company delivers that service or product once paid for. It's a highly stable and sane model. I'm not saying the free model needs to go away but I do believe in many cases it needs to be scaled back. It's not a great solution for most companies. Companies should collect money for their products or services rather than try to subsidize their free model via some other method like ads or venture capital which makes a pretty shaky company. 

When a company is working on a free model, it also de-values the product or service and the motivation internally to make it the best it can be but reversely, when you charge a fee upfront the whole company is motivated and incentivized to make it great. Their being paid to make it great. 

In this market, more companies need to drive revenue that can be injected back into the economy and in order to do that we need to build solid and stable companies that operate with clean exchange that charge a fee and deliver a product or service to the client. Then do this in high volume. Rather than some subsidized life dependent company that solely relies on advertisers or venture capital. Let's get back to basics. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Animated videos help drive sales...

Here's a brief video that explains our animated online videos.

Customers Aren't Always "Right"

Now I realize that most people in business have heard or have been trained on the concept that "the customer is always right" but it's a trap for your business and not a long-range strategy or operating basis that you should subscribe to. 

The truth is, it was you that came up with your business idea. You have created it everyday and worked out the kinks - not your customer. Customers don't always know what they need or want until you acutally present it to them. While it is very important to listen to the customer to understand their needs or problems - it doesn't mean it's a good idea to take every suggestion or to listen to their ideas for how to operate your company. 

Your job is to solve their problem. Stick to what you do and stick to your ideas for how to accomplish that. Become intimately familiar with the customers problems and then work out the solutions based on your own insights and knowledge to attain what is needed. If you operate on the premise that the customer is always right, I can almost guarantee that this will lead you off your course down a dark path that you shouldn't be. You've built an entire company based on what you have come up with, your ideas, your methods and the customer signed up because of it. Deal with any suggestions or complaints as they come up, sure. But don't deviate off course based on listening to everything the customer say's until one day.... your progress slows or declines because you've been changing your company based on "the customer is always right". 

Know your company. Know your clients problems and then know the methods to solve them and stick to it. Continue to improve your company to solve the problem better but don't get distracted by customer input, ideas or complaints. If you solve the problem and get good at doing what you do and you consistently impropve what you do based on what you know, you won't need to worry about the customers input because they will be extremely pleased with what you have done. 

Here's a great quote from Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, that relates to this:

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

So focus your efforts. Improve your systems and delivery for what you do but ultimately you have to know your company goals, purposes and who you are as well as what you are trying to be. That will carve your company into the ideal vision you are trying to attain. The customer doesn't know what the vision is or how to get there and they never will so just focus on doing what you do and servicing them better to handle their problem, need or want and everyone will be happy. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Fast Decisions Make Time

It's pretty common to hear people complain about not having enough time or being busy. There never seems to be enough time right? Too much work and not enough time to do it. However, a huge sum of the problem is not related to how much time there is, it's related to what people do to themselves that cause bottle necks in their schedules and gobble up their time.

I could list out many many examples of this but for the purpose of keeping this short and sweet, I will name just one. Decisions. Taking forever to make them, that is. Here's an example: your company needs a product or service that has been discussed in the past and everyone agrees that it's something that you do indeed need or want. You have found a company to do the work and all seems to look good. At this point, rather than making an immediate decision to move forward swiftly to get what you want - meetings are held, emails are exchanged back and forth, time is added, people need to approve it, questions and objections are voiced...... well..... you know this example well I'm sure.

If you observe this situation or any situation just like it, you can clearly see where your time goes. It gets eaten by the simplest of things. Learn to make fast decision and you will learn the art of creating time. WAY more time! Do not hesitate to pull the trigger on decisions. Make them fast and make them now. By disciplining yourself to get into the habit of this, you can get a lot more done. You will start to have an abundance of time. Time is not the issue, the issue is the things that waste time and gobble up the little time you have. Focus on making fast decision for everything and complete cycles related to decision immediately and you will start to recapture your time.

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Hold Your Position

In sales, you can frequently be knocked off of your position by your prospect which can lead to no sale. What I mean by this is that sometimes the prospect will push you on a negotiation point that you attempt to handle and cater to, only to realize that this didn't close the sale.

Bending over backwards and allowing every request from the prospect will not close the sale. You must have the ability to hold your position and stay true to what you sell and what you can or cannot do. Use tactful communication to steer the conversation where you want to go and handle objections rather than just buckle to them. It's OK to say "no". In fact, it can be an incredible negotiating tool and sales tool to simply say, "I'm sorry but we can't make that work but here is how we can address this..." or simply walk away from the deal if you can't handle the concern. You would be amazed at how walking away from a deal can be a powerful tool to close the sale. Many prospects will reach back even stronger after you have walked away from it.

The key point here is to stay strong on your position. For example, if the price of any item is $1000 and the prospect wants it for $900, you can simply say, "we can't do it for that price but the truth is, the market price for this is $2000 so you are already getting the best rate and dealing with us, we will provide a best practices guide at the end to help you with this which will help you dramatically improve sales from this service...." With this example, you hold your position while selling them and concluding the deal with a value add. Be smart about how to handle each situation and just keep in mind that buckling under pressure from the prospects demands will not help you make a sale. You're better off to hold your position and use tactful communication to steer the deal toward the desired outcome.

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Care

It's a simple concept but few recognize it or actually apply it to sales or business in general. Care. You have to care about your prospect. Care about your client. Care to be interested. No, not the fake kind that comes across as awkwardness on the receiving end. The authentic kind. Actually be interested in your prospect or client. Ask them questions. Take some time to study their site to clearly understand their company and where they may need help and where you may fit in.

See, all too many salespeople clearly only care about one thing - their commission to fatten their pocket but the truth is, that is the longest and hardest route you could take. Instead, focus on caring authentically about the prospect. There is a reason or purpose or need that they are trying to handle or resolve which is why they called you. Care to find out what the reason or purpose is. Understand it. Ask questions. Problem solve with them to help handle it. Get excited about them and their company and focus on helping them attain their goal faster. Be genuine and care. This is your fastest route to actually making a sale.

It's actually difficult to express this one factor in text format in a blog but all I can really tell you is that you have to care genuinely about the prospect or client enough to be truly interested in them and focused on helping them. Care enough to have engaging dialog, even if it goes off track leading to things like family, travel or life - care to listen, care to be interested and care to genuinely help. Believe me, it will come across to your prospect and they will love you for it. You want faster sales? This is the way. Care.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Contraction and Expansion

Just a note on how contraction relates to expansion and why contraction is neccessary. When you expand at a large level in a short amount of time after a lot of hard work, push through and ultimately attainment of the expansion goals you set out for, it's natural for some level of contraction to follow right after. It doesn't have to of course - there are ways to quickly stabalize and increase the expansion even further but don't get beat up by the contraction should it occur. Rather, use the time to evaluate what flaws or weaknesses the expansion helped reveal, define what the new expansion goals are, get the team re-organized and energized and put in systems and operations that help bolster the current level as well as allow for the new level you plan to expand to.

This constant ebb and flow of expansion and contraction continues while you grow. It's natural. There's no need to freak out about it. Just ensure that you organize behind all expansion to stabalize the growth and help contribute to new levels of expansion. Otherwise, the contraction will stick and the whole activity becomes a little shakey which hurts your momentum.

So use the contraction to quickly identify what needs to be addressed, address it, plan for new expansion and hit the ground hard to push the next major targets through to complete. You will find your contractions will become larger and larger to soon become bigger that your previous highest ever expansion levels. So as long as the overall stats in the area are trending up - just keep doing this over and over to handle both expansion and contraction accordingly.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Spend More Time Planning

I realize that planning can seem like a waste of time or an extra headache but it will save you a huge amount of time and wheel-spinning throughout your week.

I see a lot of people just go to work and get into the motion of work and handle actions as they come and attempt to just produce but there is very little forward motion related to this. What we are looking to attain here is precise, predictable forward motion that conquers goals.

So, here is what I want you to do - take time to plan your week. On Sunday, sit down and write or type out exactly what is needed to be done for the week in order to attain your goals. Make it clear, concise and actionable. If you're in sales, list every cycle you are working on and the actions needed to close each cycle this week. Be thoughtful about the physical steps that must be done to execute and attain each action. Print it out or write it down on a notepad - whatever works for you but have it all worked out.

Then, when Monday comes, you simply need to execute the plan. Stick to the plan. Push the plan through. Get it done. That's it. Don't try to just "be productive" with no game plan. Be thorough and make a defined plan and then do it. Simple. Try it out.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Decide for Them

In sales, there comes a point when you have to ask for the close in some form or fashion. Now this can be a little bit of an awkward moment for many. Some people make common mistakes at this point and then experience the after thoughts after hanging up the phone or leaving the meeting with the distinct feeling of.... "oh... damn it... I should have said [insert appropriate line]" Yes, it's happened to all of us. You get to the point of closing a deal right then and there and you ask them to make a decision like "would you like to do this or that..."

You're making your sales life harder than it needs to be. Here is what I want you to do - make the decision for your prospect. Tell them, rather than ask them. There's a tactful and smooth way to do this and it works. Rather than say, do you want to pay by check or corporate card? Say, "we will bill this to your corporate card and send the reciept over to your email - what are the card details?" Make the decisions for your prospect so they don't have to. Believe me, you save them time as well as your own. The prospect prefers it this way as well. Less decisions, less hassle, less things to think about. 

Give it a try. Any situation that may require you to ask for a decision - change to you making the decision on behalf of the prospect to handle it right then and there. You will find that this speeds up the sales cycle and improves the overall close percentages not too mention reduces work and effort for you and the prospect.

You will use this method of making a deicison for your prospect this week and then post a comment on my blog to let me know how it went and I will look forward to hearing from you. (see that wasn't so hard was it?)

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Order and Expansion

Over the past few weeks I've been on a mission to put order into every single area of our company. Meaning, I am making it orderly, implementing systems etc. The magic of "order" is limitless. Each little area that we've put order into results in things magically getting better. In other words, we made our company more orderly in one area and found that it impacted our growth just that much for the week.

Look around your company and make a list. Find every single area that you can to put order in. Then, simply address them one by one.

Here are a few examples:

- Make all workspaces neat and tidy to improve production

- Make a revision to a contract to ensure it reads correctly

- Address some old "need to get done's" and do them

- Implement a new checklist to help make a process more efficient and swift

- Get rid of a redundant task or function that causes extra work

These are but a few areas. Just start listing out all of the areas that you want to make orderly and then do so. You will be completely blown away at how this will impact you sales, growth, expansion, morale and the list goes on. It's complete magic.

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

 

 

Goal Attainment

It's easy to get caught up looking off into the distant future and at the overall goal of what you are trying to attain but the actual way to attain your goal is by breaking it down into a series of small sub-goals that ultimately attain the overall goal.

I think a lot of people have trouble with this and get beat up trying to attain a goal that never seems to come to fruition. Here is how to attain a goal:

1. Write down the overall vision that you want to attain. Make it crystal clear so you have the goal clearly defined.

2. Work out the sequence of actions that would possibly be needed to attain the goal. In other words, what do you have to do to attain it. List every possible step or action related to the goal.

3. Take the first step or action and break it down into executable, doable targets.

4. Execute the first step and targets.

Then keep repeating step 1 to 4 over and over with all of your goal targets. The planning of goals and the working out of how to attain the goal itself is important. Once this is done, just focus on execution of the small sub-goals within the overall goal.

As an example, I run a lot and I have an overall goal that I am going after for sure but I focus on the sub-goals and then smaller sub-goals within those sub-goals. I get up everyday and go for a run with a goal in mind but even while running, I am only really focused on the next step in front of me. I am looking to accomplish one concrete block step after the other concrete block step. I don't stare at the distance that I am running toward. I don't think about the overall fitness goal either. I win goal after goal which are the small steps right in front of me and then by focusing on those, I end up attaining the overall goal for that day of the distance I want to go. This then is one sub-goal executed that aligns with the overall goal of a fitness target.

Does that make sense? It's the breaking down of a goal into bit sized chunks that are doable, executable targets that is actually how to attain a goal. Then focusing on the small targets and getting them done. These then will lead to actual attainment of the overall goal. Work out the goal. Work out the planning. Work out the sub-goals. Work out the sub-goal targets. Execute daily.

Here is a great video by Nike that I thought appropriate :)

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Decision Comes First

Decision seems to be a relatively misunderstood word. In business, people talk about decisions, the decision-maker etc but rarely truly understand the power of decisions and the priority they take in getting anything done.

See, many people try to have all the facts, knowledge and info lined up prior to making a decision and more specifically - SO they can make a decision. It doesn't work like that.

It works like this - you have to look at what you want to do and then completely and utterly decide on what you will do, the outcome etc. Make a decision that is unwavering and fully committed. Then you work toward the decision taking actions in order to execute what you decided on. That is how it works and that will give you the cleanest and exact result of your decision.

Decide, then actions to execute the decision.

Don't waffle and think and come up with options after options and ho-hum and maybe this, maybe that - no - look at what you want, make a decision and take actions toward executing your decision to make it happen. It's that simple. So focus on clear, crisp decisions and taking actions that attain your decisions.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Adding Time

How much time is added unnecessarily to your life? Just imagine for a second how many situations in your business that time get's added that didn't need to be added. Think about it. Here are a few examples to exercise your thoughts:

- you get an email and instead of handling it right then and there, you put it away for "later"

- you tell someone in business that you will review and handle this "next week" when you could handle it right now. - you don't gather all the people that need to be associated with a decision immediately to put it to bed right now, only to procrastinate and put it off for another day

- you defer decisions to someone else when you can actually handle it and be done with it.

These are just a few examples but just imagine if you made a list of every single time you added time to a situation that didn't require it and then you stopped doing it! A lot of time would be freed up for you. A ton of time actually. So it isn't really that you never have enough time... Is it? No. It's that you gobble up all the available time you have with the fluff of "adding time" to various situations for no apparent reason. Stop doing it and buy yourself extra time to get more done. You will be amazed at how much you are actually capable of. Let your competition or other folks add time but don't join them in this idiotic activity.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Doubt

The insidious infection in your business is doubt. Seek out anyone who may be infected with it to handle them immediately or get them out of your company to quarantine the area.

Yes, it's that serious. Anyone who may have any doubts about your future, the vision of the company and the certainty or belief in pulling it off is a liability. They will drag you down. Their doubts will infect your progress and your other people - count on it. Handle them or get rid of them. Your team must be composed of enthusiastic, focused, determined and confident people who relentlessly persist toward the goal with total belief that they will attain it. That is how you win.

If you have people on board that are doubtful - shoot them from cannons. Believe in your ability to attain your vision and get everyone to move toward that vision with total conviction and you will absolutely attain it.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Making Friends

It's easy in busines and in sales to loose sight of what you are trying to do or the purpose behind everything, so here is a little reminder - it's about relationships. It's about people. It's about helping another person or company attain their goals which helps you attain yours as well. It's about the "why" of what you are doing. And it's about making friends. 

Business shouldn't be a grind. It's not. It's about building relationships with others that result in more business. We tend to look at sales and taking on new clients as making new friends. It may sound hokey but the truth is, I only want to do business with people that I like and that I would like to deal with daily and in the future. My ideal scene would be to have on-going relationships with my clients so we could actually develop a working friendship. Our goal is to make friends with clients. That is the ideal setting for your business. That is how you build stability and ultimately gain the most pleasure out of what you do. Work becomes more of a game and time with clients becomes fun. 

Start looking at your client base to decide who you feel you can develop better relationships with and how to make them more of a friend and also, who you may need to get rid of as a client perhaps because they don't align with your business. This one thing can results in a huge amount of growth for your company. To only do business with people or companies you feel you can create long term relationships with and ultiamtely make your friend. The foundation and strength of your company will grow from this alone. So go make some friends, not just clients. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

People

People. The essence and core of your business is people. I wanted to make a comment on people as it relates to your company. People are the very core to everything you do as a company. They are what makes it all work. What makes it go. So much of your resources should be supporting your people. This could be training, help, bonuses, creating a nice environment etc. In other words, treat your people well. Take care of them. Help them grow. People are amazing. They are talented, smart and innovative. People are willing and ready to play the game of winning. Take care of them. Acknowledge them. Help and support them and most importantly, put them in the right place, challenge them and allow them to grow and flourish in your company. If you put them in an area, trust them to do the job. Don't do them the disservice of handling their problems for them. Let them solve them, their smarter than you think. I would encourage you to look at doing whatever is needed this week and from here on out to figure out how to help and service your people so they can flourish. Provide training, challenge, rewards etc. Figure out what they need and what you can do to help them perform better. People, if you let them, can do incredible things for you and your company. Trust them and push them to blossom to their full potential and you will see the amazing effects this will have on your company.
- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Dragging Decision is Bad Business

Too frequently in business you hear people say "let me get back to you next week.." "Let's discuss this end of 3rd quarter..." Etc. This kind of procrastination related to making decisions is bad business. The decision or information at hand will not change in 2 months, next week or next year. Force yourself to look at the situation, evaluate the opportunities and make a decision right now.
Every delay you make, hurts your business. Your slowness or inability to make fast decisions is holding you back. Learn to discipline yourself to make fast decisions and commit to those decisions in order to speed up the flow of your company. Watch what happens when implemented. Swift decisions and swift actions will lead to growth and success. Let your competition mess around with delayed decision making processes but don't allow yourself to fall the effect of it. - Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Staying the Course

Over the years in business, I have seen two distinct personality types as they relate to success. Those that stay the course and those that jump from place to place. Consistently I have seen the one's that stay the course in whatever path they have chosen outperform those that hop around.

Most people want success but few have the discipline and focus to attain it. You must decide first and foremost on what you are going to commit to. Then you need to do everything to learn it, do it, hustle and get better at it and most importantly, stay the course. The temptation to jump ship and do something else is a distraction. Stay the course. Focus on what you decided to do and do it well over time. This is the road to take if you want long term success.

Let's take a few examples:

- Steve Jobs started Apple in the 70's. He's been focused on computers and doing what he's doing his whole working life.

- Ralph Lauren has been interested in fashion and design since his teens, he has never deviated off of this path.

- Richard Branson started the Virgin brand of companies in his early 20's. Although he own's a large assortment of many different companies, if you ask him and study them, he will tell you that his businesses are all comprised of the same Virgin brand principals making the overall company a "Branded Venture Group" company.

These are just a few examples of high profile people you may have heard of but the reality is, I know a huge amount of successful people not quite as high profile but still extremely successful that have followed the same formula. They have focused on something they wanted to do, plastics, computers, sales, technology, hotels etc and they have stayed the course their entire working lives.

I haven't met too many people that jump around from one place to the next that are successful. In all honesty, I haven't even met one.

So the take away here is this:

1) Find something you want to do forever and decide to do it

2) Stay the course and persist in order to attain success in that field.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Find Inspiration

Inspiration breeds action. Each day, use something that inspires you to act. Goals take action. If you want to get anywhere in life, you need to act. Inspiration helps action. It pushes you to do. To push through barriers and execute.
What inspires you? Find things that seem to inspire you and incorporate them into your day. It could be a video. A movie. A quote. A picture. An idea. Whatever, just discover it and then use it daily to inspire action. Success and goal attainment comes down to how bad you want something and then acting on you goals to execute tasks that will get you there. People have up days and down days but if you keep yourself inspired and focused, each day can be packed with acting and executing toward your goals. Find something that inspires you and use it daily.
- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

The buck stops with you

In business as in life, the buck always stops with you. You are responsible for your outcomes. It's a hard fact to face for many. If you just looked at every situation in your life or business and operated on the basis that - it's your responsibility and you will be the master of your outcomes, it would be smooth sailing from there on out.
People fall on their face and deal with hardship or turmoil to the degree that they look for external causes. Looking to blame some outside influence is counter-productive. It's you. Always has been. Always will be. Your efforts, your actions and your decisions are the only thing you should be concerned with. Don't seek other reasons, they don't exist.
Take full responsibility. Full accountability for the outcome of your actions and know that the buck stops with you. Once you know this and operate with it, things get better. You can control the game. You can set your strategy plan and you can work causatively toward your goals. Knowing that it's you is empowering.
Decide to take full accountability and responsibility for all outcomes from here on out and don't look for anything to blame for less than desirable outcomes, ever. With that, you can truly take charge and control the game and your goals.
- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

If they were sold, it would be done

Any salesperson has gotten caught up in the moment and excitement of a sale but it's not done, until it's done.
So many times salespeople trick themselves into saying and believing that the deal is done. "their sold" say's the confident salesperson. Are they? If they were sold, it would be done. Contract signed. Paperwork in the door and money in hand. That's sold. That's done.
If a prospect is completely and utterly sold on your offering, they'll close immediately. If they don't close (as in done done done) there is something lingering. Some thought. Some reservation or doubt in their mind still that must be handled to conclude the cycle. Believe me, if they have not signed, it's because they are not fully sold. Figure out what is stopping them from signing now, handle it, sell them all the way through and then close the deal.... today.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Long Sales Pitches

Here's the deal. If it takes a long time to pitch... in the words of Ben Affleck's character in Good Will Hunting ... "Ya suspect"
Whether it's a long email or sales letter web page or video pitch, if it's too long, your leaving money on the table. In other words, your deletion rate or rejection rate is very high. Keep it short, punchy and sweet. Focus your message and don't waste people's time. Get to the point and focus on impact. You're absolutely kidding yourself if you think people will read an email that's a page in content.
If it's an email, keep it to a few lines with a link to where you want people to go or entice them to reach out to you for more info. If it's a video, keep it under 2 minutes. People will look at the time frame of the video and won't even watch it if it's over 3 minutes or 5 minutes but we have found that under 2 minutes is powerful.
People are busy. People naturally resist sales not to mention lengthy pitches that take up their precious time. Sales is a strategy sport. Be brief. Cut to the point and focus on your audience's needs or wants in a short punchy way and your response rate will go way up.
- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Be Honest With Yourself

The value of honesty in business is clear but the value of honesty as it relates to you with yourself is critical. We've all done it. We've failed to be honest with ourselves about various situations in business which, un-addressed become thorns in our sides. The dishonesty with ourselves comes from our desire to believe things are better than they are or the person we know deep down who is not working out will somehow work out or it could be simply that we don't want to confront the reality of a specific situation. There are zillions of situations in business that come up and are ultimately awkward for you and others but the truth is the truth. You know it in your gut and not doing anything about it or trying to change it - well - won't change anything. Be honest with yourself. Address things candidly and look at the real situation and then make swift decisions based on your honest assessment. You'll find that most situations that come up in business become a lot simpler. Complex handling's are no longer complex.

Difficulties stem and fester from you not confronting and being honest about situations as they come up. They will quickly resolve and dissipate to the degree that you are honest with yourself and act on that honesty to address and remedy situations as they arise.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Isn't it a sport?

We all agree that practice makes perfect. Training is directly related to winning and in sports, competence from training and practice makes all the difference in the world. So it would make sense to apply the same principals to business, wouldn't it? Business runs on all of the same principals as any sport or game. Rules, strategies, opponents, goals, scores etc. But how many take business as serious when it comes to training and practice? What are you currently doing to get better at what you do?

I heard that when Vijay Singh won the Masters he dedicated a ridiculous amount of time to practice every shot. It seems the same logic applies in business. To become the best at what you do, you need to study, train and practice. This could mean reading, taking courses, drilling, reviewing all current stats to understand the existing scene, going to events, seeing speakers etc. It could be anything. Everyone needs to spend time training, studying and practicing in order to get better at what they do. Without constant learning or practice to improve yourself, you get stale and rote. Take your business and profession seriously. Learn to improve. Study. Train and practice what you do by whatever means necessary. You'll never excel and improve on your year over year results without an effective training strategy. Don't allow yourself to get complacent. Business, like any sport, requires a huge focus on training and practice to stay sharp, improve results and ultimately win at whatever it is your doing.
- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Asking

Since our agency is completely focused on business development, relationships and ultimately sales, we end up studying and discussing the topic frequently. This then brings up the topic of asking. It's importance in sales. 

While you can do virtually everything exactly "right" in a sale's cycle, if you don't ask, you won't close. It's that simple. It even sounds ridiculously simple. It's one of those things that sounds like something that everyone should know, do and apply but most don't. I've had plenty of people attempt to sell me products or services and never ask me which results in me not buying. I'm sure you have as well. 

Think it over. On your last sales cycle, did you clearly ask for the sale? If so, how many time's. If not, why? People seem to hesitate at asking. It seem's to be an awkward moment for all involved but if you practice it enough and do it enough, over time, it becomes second nature. Many sales cycles seem to go very well, the prospect is interested, you have a great discussion with them, they need or want what you are selling and the deal doesn't close. You follow up and still the deal doesn't close. Perhaps the follow up goes something like this, "Hi, did you get my proposal I sent over?... great.... well... I was just following up with you..... mmmm hmmm..... ok.... any questions?..... great.... ok I will follow up next week...." If you don't ask.... you won't close. It's that simple. 

Ask as many times as it takes to close the deal. If you ask once and the answer is something like.."we still need to look at...." no problem. Don't take it personally, handle that point and then... yup... you guessed it.. ask again. Ask and ask and ask until it's done while handling the objections and concerns along the way. Don't back off. They have interest. They want to buy the product. In fact, it does your prospect a favor by asking and closing the deal. People are not very good at selling and closing themselves. A skilled salesperson that is an expert at selling, asking and closing business is actually a pleasure to deal with. It's the ones that drag their feet and are hesitant and can't control the cycle that cause the awkwardness associated with the sale. 

Here is what I want you to do, try asking this week with any deal you are working on. Just ask them. Come right out and say, "Listen, I want you to get started on this strategy this week, let's start on this today" or something similar that straight out ask's them to close. Trust me, this will change your sales for the better for you and your prospects. They want to be asked, so ask them. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Second Wind

Everybody swings up and down in life. Some days your on top of your game and others... not so much. In business, as in any sport or activity, you need to really zero in on what gives you your second wind. In other words, what takes the time out of the equation for you to bounce back so you get your game face on and continue your forward momentum.

For me, it's reading and running. When my thoughts seem a little un-clear and I'm a little beat up by the week or various problems arise in the business that all seem to need "urgent" attention, I run or read. Reading gives me clarity. I read mostly business books but they help exercise my thoughts and allow me to have clear ideas re-circulate in my mind which almost always handle the exact issues I am faced with in my company. Running allows me to completely extrovert so my attention is outward rather than inward. Body's need exercise and pushing yourself to the limit physically will give you a feeling of calm and clarity. While running I typically have clear ideas come to me that handle and address various problems as well.

But you have to find what works for you. How can you get your second wind. For you, it might be shopping or a short out of town trip for a day or two. Whatever it may be, figure it out and do it every time you get the wind knocked out of you a little so you can get back on your game and on your mission to attain your goals.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

What you did yesterday.... Doesn't matter

It's a tough fact to swallow for most but the truth is, what you did yesterday really doesn't matter in business. People sometimes have the tendency to try to justify today's lack of performance by using yesterday's actions or results. The reality is that businesses operate on the minute. Right now and in the future. What did you do today? What do you have lined up or planned for tomorrow?

My dad's business partner used to always say, "make a good deal today or execute a good idea today, don't wait for the perfect deal tomorrow because tomorrow never comes..." So the focus is on today. Don't use yesterday's success or results to get complacent today. Yesterday doesn't justify today's lack of performance. Judge yourself everyday. Push yourself to perform everyday. It's a daily discipline that will payoff big over time.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Knowledge and Management

As the saying goes, "knowledge is power". By knowledge I mean knowing your business with measurements and numbers. Many businesses or business people simply come in to work each day and apply effort and "work hard" while making some gains some days and losing ground others but in the end, no real progress is made. Goal attainment and progressive forward motion is not about working hard and trying to do better than yesterday and really knuckling down. Its about knowing your business, knowing the actual numbers so you can correctly estimate and direct actions that will factually improve the numbers. For example, if you're a retail business you would need to figure out the hard numbers that relate to the following:

1. How many promo emails or letters or postcards do you need to send to make one person walk through your door

2. How many people need to walk through the door in order to make one sale

3. What is the average price of one sale

4. What is the average cost of one sale

You get the idea. The point is, there are numbers in any business that you as a manager or executive or owner must know. Once you know them, you can start making real progress. With the example above, if the retail owner knew the above numbers they could accurately estimate their promo, sales and costs and have accurate prediction based on executing their strategy based on the numbers that they knew.

It can be difficult to discover the fundamental numbers of a business but it's a crucial element to making forward progress and confidently growing the company. Without these numbers, your company will flounder with good days and bad days, ups and downs that never seem to end with no real accurate insight into what actually makes the company tick.

Every business has fundamental numbers that can be discovered and measured to create facts that can be managed in order to control outcomes and future growth. You have to "know" your company through numbers in order to gain traction. If you know that you have to have 10 sales discovery phone calls to make one sale and one sale is worth $10,000 and your first quarter goal is $200,000, then you "know" that you will need to have your sales team setup 200 sales discovery appointments in the first quarter. If you knew that it took 100 emails to setup one discovery sales call, you then would know that you will need to send 20,000 emails to make that happen. It starts to give you an idea of the actual effort needed to move the company forward to grow.

Not knowing this stuff means no control over the future of the company and results in missed targets or goals. Why bother having any planning meetings for the new year or the quarter if you don't have these numbers pegged. I read a great quote one time that stated, "the best way to predict the future is to create it..." - you can create your future for your company by knowing the vital numbers cold, from there you can accurately predict, manage and control your outcome.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

True and Accurate Management

If I was forced to guess at one of the biggest downfalls of any management team or executive, I would have to say it would relate to mis-estimating numbers or actually making decision and executing actions off inaccurate information. Entrepreneurs, owners and most executives tend to be optimistic, as they should be about future growth and goals. In many ways, you really have to be in order to be in management. There's nothing wrong with shooting for the moon but when it comes to information related to management decisions and actions, your data or information needs to be as accurate and precise and real as possible.

It's vital to ensure that your team is getting you the most relevant and accurate information available. Why? Because you need to know exactly where you stand in order to make good judgement calls and set targets that will forward your goals. I would be willing to bet that this happens many times in most companies where they are presented with slightly fluffed numbers that are a little optimistic. People want the numbers in the company to be good and they want to look good which causes people to sometimes fluff the numbers and make them look a little better than they actually are. People don't like to confront what may be worse numbers than they are actually representing and so they present numbers or information that is slightly off (usually on the high side). This then deceives management and causes inaccurate orders and estimations.

Then, of course, management sets targets and goals as well as orders based on the slightly padded numbers thinking they are accurate and the company somehow "misses" the numbers. Now, this isn't always due to bad information, it can also be lack of push through or execution but I would be willing to bet that a huge percent of it has to do with the management team working with bad information.

In order to succeed as an executive or management team, you have be honest with yourself and ask that your team and junior people are honest with you as well in order to make sure that "feel good" numbers or information is not to be used as the vital information to manage, set goals and targets or execute off of. Save the overly positive numbers and information for the PR division. You must insist that the numbers you are fed are as real and accurate as possible so you have the exact data you need to make intelligent decisions and actually grow the company based on your goals, targets and orders being set by those numbers. It doesn't help anyone by having fluffed numbers or information and the "feel good" aspect of it is short-lived compared with the after effect of being disappointed by being off target. So be ruthless about accurate data and information, be honest with yourself and have your team be honest with you when it comes to data or information that will be used to set targets, goals and orders so you can accurately attain your goals and everyone can take a win when you do.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Why We Hate Butterflies

Sounds like a funny title but the truth is, butterflies are a serious problem in the business world. Chasing them that is. In today's busy and sometimes chaotic world it's easy to get distracted and end up dreaming or chasing butterflies rather than staying the course and focusing on your goals, mission and the immediate tasks at hand. My advice, learn to hate butterflies as well.

Focus on who you are, what you do, what the goal is and your next most immediate step toward it. Get focused in every aspect of your company from knowing what target audience or vertical market you want to go after, exactly what you sell and what your value proposition is making sure that you aren't trying to be all things to all people, getting your people focused on their mission and tasks to attain your focused goal and only promoting and selling to your focused market etc.

There are zillions of things that can take you off course. Distractions. Butterflies. Get rid of them and learn to simplify your company to get focused and then get tunnel vision about that focus to work toward goal attainment. It may sound more "fun" or sexy to chase the constant new adventure or idea but it's wasted time and effort. They prevent you from true victory and goal attainment.

Take a look at any super successful company or person and you will see a very clear trend of doing the same thing with consistent improvement over a period of time that has now put them in a position that most envy. They were disciplined and stayed focused on their mission and goal.

Stop bouncing around and chasing possible ideas, the constant new trend or latest fad and get focused on what you do or love and then work like mad on simplifying and making every facet of your company focused on the one goal and mission. There are countless examples that prove this to be the most workable method to success and conversely probably countless examples that show that butterflies are a parasite to your future.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group