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