O MANNY's

1. Not So Merry Mobile Apps

The holiday season has prompted the launch of a whole range of fresh mobile applications, or 'apps,' designed to enhance the holiday shopping experience. But McAfee warns consumers to think twice before downloading; malicious software can masquerade as a trusted app, allowing cyber criminals to steal personal information and charge purchases to your accounts. Only update your apps by using an official, trusted app store to minimize this risk.

2. Holiday mobile SMS scams 

Scammers obtain your mobile numbers from websites or forms people you might have innocently given your contact details too. One method is to target victims by sending texts promising "free" gifts or prizes, but consumers who click on the links could find themselves handing over sensitive information in exchange for the free gift, exposing them to credit card fraud and identity theft. Texters should also be careful that they don't find themselves unwittingly signed up to a premium rate texting service that racks up a hefty bill. Even worse, malware can even hide in the background watching your text messages for bank authorization codes to steal. Keep an eye on your bills for unusual text messaging charges.

3. Hot holiday gift scams

The old adage 'if it seems too good to be true it probably is' rings true when it comes to holiday scams. Beware of seemingly incredible deals on the latest tablet devices, game consoles, and other hot gadgets. If you click a link to enter a contest or get a great deal on a new device you could end up on a site that attempts to trick you into downloading malware or revealing your personal information. To avoid getting duped, McAfee experts recommend being suspicious of very low prices and online stores you've never heard of.

4. Seasonal travel scams

Travel is a big part of the holiday season for many people, and we often look for the best flights and hotel deals online. But cyber criminals are present here as well, working hard to trick you into giving up your credit card numbers and other private information. The same rule on holiday gift scams applies here, be wary of unrealistically low prices on vacations and stick to reputable sites.

5. Dangerous E-Season Greetings

Yes, you guessed it; even electronic greeting cards can contain malware that makes itself at home on your tablet, phone or computer when you click on e-card link. While most are safe and harmless, McAfee advises not opening the link unless you know the sender. You can also check the address that the e-card came from to verify it belongs to a legitimate, known greeting company.

6. Deceptive online games

Many people enjoy playing online and interactive games on their smartphones and tablets, but a seemingly harmless game can also be used by cyber criminals to lure you into downloading malware. While you're busy ridding the world of zombies, malware could be busy extracting your personal information. Game fans should check online reviews for warnings from less fortunate gamers and stick to well-known app stores.

7. Shopping notification shams

Cyber criminals know you'll get deliveries during the holidays, so they send out fake but realistic email messages with shipping verification requests, but filling out bogus forms can lead to account theft or identity fraud. Check the sender's email address to see if it's valid, look out for spelling and grammar mistakes – a trademark warning sign of a fake email – and bear in mind, most shippers will already have the information they need so won't need to ask for it again. 8. Bogus gift cards Gift cards can be an attractive solution for buying gifts for hard-to-please friends or fussy relatives, but there are bogus ones around. The safest way to buy online is from an official retailer, not third party websites; otherwise you could end up with a red-faced friend trying to shop at the mall with a fake gift card!

9. Holiday 'SMiShing'

Most consumers are aware of email 'phishing' scams where cyber criminals masquerade as a trustworthy entity and attempt to extract user names, passwords and credit card details. But as mobile phones and tablets are become more popular, 'SMiShing' – or text message phishing – is now becoming just as dangerous. Most legitimate businesses would never ask you to provide personal details, passwords or other sensitive information in a text message. Instead of replying, contact the organization directly by phone.

10. Fake charities

The festive period can encourage many to think of those less fortunate than them, and can prompt generous donations to charities. Cyber criminals are ready to take advantage as always. Watch out for fake charities using copied texts and logos in emails or on websites, and check the sender's email address – some fake charity branding can look almost identical to authentic ones – so be vigilant.

11. Romance scams

Everyone wants someone special to share the holidays with, and online dating sites have become a popular way to meet people. But your prospective holiday romance might not be who he or she seems, and may in fact be a cybercriminal using photos, email and text messages to pretend to be another member of a dating website, with a real goal of luring you into visiting a site laden with malware. The best way to avoid this is to never click on links from anyone you don't already know and trust.

12. Phony E-tailers

Just as charities are subject to bogus imitations, so are legitimate retailers. Be careful before you hand over your credit card details, as a 'once-in-a-lifetime' special offer could turn into identity theft or an empty bank account. Check names and web addresses carefully for subtle differences that might indicate you are on a fake website and limit your online shopping to trusted e-tailers.

*Originally written by Katie H. of CNBC.com
*Powered by BJMANNYST.com  & FOUNDERSUNDER40.com

At some point on ones journey of life you will wakeup to the question, what do you live for and what is the vision of my life? Founder of Founders Under 40 ™Group: For me, I have known since the day I entered this world that I had an higher purpose and that I was meant for greatness and life’s riches. What I did know was it will be within areas that brought me the greatest joy. Everyday I live and get rewarded from the greatest joy and life’s riches.


So to my fellow founders & Founders Under 40™ Group members, it’s that time again to take sometime to give thanks and reflect and make plans for tomorrow.

So as a gift to you from me, take sometime to answer these questions & put a copy in your wallet or purse:

• What do I want to do with my life? 
• What are the things I’m most passionate about? 
• What are the things I’m not so passionate about? 
• What are my greatest accomplishments in life so far? 
• If my life had no boundaries and consequences, what would I choose to have and what would I choose to do? 
• What do I want from life (be very specific) and what do I need to do get it? 
• What are you willing to sacrifice & give for the things you want? 
• Who do I look up to and want to be like? 
• What would your best life look like? 
• On your last breath, what would you like to know you achieved? 

*Note: the more detail and specifics you provide the better. My best wishes and remember BJ Mannyst , www.bjmannyst.com, (advantageous marketing service provider) + FU40 Group, www.foundersunder40.com are at your service. Thank You!!!

“But ultimately we all pay a price. If our coworkers cannot be themselves in the workplace, they certainly cannot be their best selves. When that happens, we undermine people’s potential and deny ourselves and our society the full benefits of those individuals’ talents.” - Timothy D. Cook Chief Executive Officer of Apple 


Everyday I take great pleasure in the sight of the diversity. The sight of the multitude of faces and culture, animals, views, that our world offers. Yet I still wonder whether when one group of a demographic dominates a sections of society it is actually helping mankind or holding the human race back.


I wonder if dominance is simply: Those who succeed gain majority of the available resources, and achieve long run supremacy by using their advantages to build greater strength and possibly protecting their supremacy from the threats & entry of outsiders. A lot like business.


Is it a nature or nurture behavior? I don’t know however I will not stand for it. I will no longer stand for a world where we have to beg and persuade people in power & influence to see the value of a person regardless of their gender, sexual orientation or skin color. I will stand for a world where individuals just decide to take their money elsewhere or start a business that represents the values they want. I will stand for a world that encouraged universal values as a way to live life and run our businesses.


The more I read about technological advances that are eventually going to become mainstream, I also wonder which demographic would benefit from the wealth and which ones will be fighting for mere bread crumbs. An example, the eventual use of algorithms & data by governments to tell individuals how exactly to live their lives.


Our world is about to radically change, in 3 years, and I hope to encourage women, LGBT, & minorities to work together to break barriers that exist in ourselves so we can breakdown the external barriers in this world.


Your rights are worth the fight. If you know what you are worth, go get what you are worth. I think people don’t have to give up or become discourage or become victimized because if we all stop the fight for fair chance to succeed, then we are nothing but slaves. However I’ve also come to realize that some people are built to be directors of life and some become spectators of life.


So how do I think we rise above the barriers: together we conquer our fears, believe in our abilities, take more risk, boost our confidence, boost our self image, manage criticism, eliminate jealousy & envy, sacrifice, be in the right relationships, learn to communicate, educate ourselves, money is not everything, share home-domestic & community responsibilities, admire the right role models, support each other, stand together, learn from successful people, etc

• l Greater competition as the volume of content being published and promoted online continues to increase, making paid search more necessary
• l Increased need to differentiate, making branding all important
• l Increasingly necessary to pay for social media advertising alongside existing organic activities
• l Social media continues to be an important communications with Increased adoption of Pinterest, particularly for online retailers and increased business adoption of  YouTube
• l Responsive design will become even more widespread as the use of mobile devices for browsing the internet continues to increase
• l Greater use of location based marketing, primarily Google Places/Google+ local
• l Smarter metrics necessary in order to obtain clearer insights and more accurately measure ROI
• l Strategically driven activities will become ever more widespread as social media reaches maturity
• l Creativity, agility and innovation will become more important in helping marketers to grab and hold the attention of their audiences

*Originally written by a different author, Shell.B

My thoughts to help cope:

• l continually question your own views of the market place
• l Create a culture of learning as a key to improvement
• l Employee training is seen as an investment rather than as a cost
• l Maintain or acquire new competitive advantages
• l Be good at using information about markets, customers and competitors
• l We understand customer needs and requirements well
• l What really gives your customers value?
• l Customer satisfaction is systematically and frequently assessed
• l Get your targeting and positioning right

Contact BJ Mannyst (bjmannyst.com) with your marketing challenges.Free Marketing Health Check Up Today.  For Detail Contact Us.

 

As technological innovation becomes inexpensive and available to all, you wonder why retailers & businesses just  not become big brother.  Cause we need more ways to loose our sense of privacy.

With cameras on phones , consumers  are little snitches . Some retailers  are increasing becoming insecure -paranoid places to be. They now have technology capability of spy agencies a.k.a  “big brother” to spy on their customers and gather intelligence about anyone that enters their online & offline stores or uses their products.  

Imagine every time a person uses their credit card to buy something, retailers take a picture of you. So that credit card info,  photos, first name, last name, facebook profile, social media, phone conversation, transaction history, online & offline behavior history can be linked to create a predictive analytics.  A predictive profile of you. And as you know, with time and intelligence, a person can be 100% predictable.

There are systems that can tell if customers are happy or upset.  Stores could  measure better their conversion rate, number of people came in and how many bought something,.  How many people noticed their window displays.  What was the demographics in the stores. Powerful brands like Pepsi can place cameras, eyeball scanners or facial-recognition technology,  on stores shelves next to their products.  And  all this data is gathered without your knowledge  and stored for as long as forever. 

 

An example:

“ One of the United Kingdom's largest retails chains will soon install face-scanning technology to help target advertisements displayed on screens.

The OptimEyes screen, which made by A_______, is said to work by scanning the faces of people waiting in line to pay -- to determine gender and approximate age, so that commercials can be catered to specific demographics. The ads will also be chosen by the date and time of day, and will monitor what customers purchase.”

Tesco will install the units in 450 gas stations in the United Kingdom.” 

 

 

My suggestion to businesses, don't do what you don't want done to your organization, your staff, your family members, your children, Just because you can doesn't mean you should.  If you violate people's privacy and security it may be very costly.

Social media is likely not going anywhere and as you know there are billions of potential customers online so why not have a dedicated staff or hired  community management provider assist you  with your online community well being.

Every time people “like” your facebook page, follow you on twitter, engages you on linkedin they are expressing an interest & love in what you offer or do. If you hope to get more fans or customers, managing all that love can be converted to more money.

Did you know that people who participate or engage in LinkedIn Group discussions get an average of four times as many profile views?

LinkedIn Groups allow you to connect with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people. Many more than you could connect with via your first-level connections.

With over two million groups, sometimes it’s hard to navigate successfully in the LinkedIn Groups world.

How do you find groups to join?

• l Check the profiles of your most valuable LinkedIn connections and see what groups they have joined.  Then choose those groups that align with your business focus.
• l Use the “Search” function in LinkedIn to find groups in a specific industry, skill set or topic.

Once you’ve joined a group

• l Spend time determining if the group works for you.  You’ll want to see how active the participants in the group are, as well as the types of posts and value of information being shared. 
• l Another reason to join groups (especially those with a large number of potential prospects) is the ability to send a message to anyone in your group, even those people who aren’t first level connections.  This functionality opens up your ability to connect with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people you might not have any other connection with.

Participate in a Few

l The same rules apply to participation in groups as they do to the rest of LinkedIn:  Provide value.  Blatant sales pitches are a big turn-off.  Instead, provide and share useful information, ask and answer questions, offer comments and recommendations.

l Once you’ve spent time investigating groups, you’ll want to actively participate in five to ten groups.

*Originally written by a different author

 

    
























FU40 Group + BJ Mannyst (marketing service provider) is proud to offer founders, SMB some inspiring ideas to help with sales this holiday season. For full marketing service by BJ Mannyst  + FU40 Group, please visit http://www.bjmannyst.com.
First of all, remember the days below and if your are fully prepared these are some quick ideas to give you are chance. Key US Holiday Period. *Remember as a consumer and business owner be very alert during these times. Also make sure to take steps to protect your reputation and customers well being.


 

• Thanksgiving Promotional Period  Nov/20 – Nov/22 
• Black Friday Promotional Period   Nov/15 – Nov/25 
• Cyber Week Promotional Period  Nov/23 – Nov/29 
• Cyber Monday Promotional Period  Nov/25 – Nov/27 
• Christmas Promotional Period  Nov/29 – Dec/25 
• New Year’s Period   Dec/26 – Jan/06

TIPS & IDEAS:

• 1. Look for new niches and customer segments  to offer your products and services to
• 2. Send people to different landing pages and test the effectiveness
• 3. Test different layouts, different words, images, different calls to action.
• 4. Create great content focused on your strength or might be invaluable to your prospects
• 5. Hire someone to go to events to talk about your products like an ambassador
• 6. Build relationships and reconnect with other business owners or professionals
• 7. Develop holiday time business network partners and come up with a tag team plan
• 8. Everyone you meet -- be very nice to them and tell them about your business
• 9. Form relationship with individuals with lots of friends and contacts
• 10. Find out what you or your business offers that others cant. Bjmannyst.com can help with helping discover your uniqueness.
• 11. Send your best customers hand written letter to remind them of your relationship
• 12. By providing great content you are becoming a trusted contact. Send updates on industry news that may be beneficial to your clients.Bjmannyst.com can help with content strategies.
• 13. Offer to partner with your customers to put together an event or seminar.
• 14. Listen to your customers and you might learn something about how to better help them. Bjmannyst.com can help with fine-tuning the messages into action.
• 15. Use testimonials from some of your customers and put them up
• 16. Send postcards instead of promotional letters so others can see it
• 17. Submit a press release or blog post for a new product, promotion or milestone.
• 18. Offer your service or product as a prize instead of cash
• 19. Find the likely concentration of your targets and handout flyers, business cards
• 20. Offer some free consultation, free gift, free product Demonstration
• 21. Start a cross promote with other businesses that target your market.
• 22. Exclusive discount to a target group
• 23. Exclusive pricing to a specific club
• 24. Send your best customers to the movies
• 25. Place balloons, holiday decorations outside of your store or try something bold. Bjmannyst.com can help with outside the box tactics.
• 26. Hold an event outside your store.
• 27. Special samples or refreshments in your store.
• 28. Use your your voice mail to advertise your special promotions
• 29. Sponsor an event.
• 30. Donate to a charity.
• 31. Wear shirts, hats or other items with your logo or business slogan.
• 32. Create a better store sign or logo. Bjmannyst.com can help with image design and digital image.
• 33. Offer to do something bold and funny for charity if you reach a goal before the holidays
• 34. Quickly learn what worked last year
• 35. Identify which emails worked best and determine which variables led to success.
• 36. Find the winning subject lines from last year and analyze it
• 37. Minimize stress, by preparing back-up promotions or variations on what isn’t working. This could mean switching from a dollar discount to percentage off or including free shipping, a free gift, or a gift card with the existing offer.
• 38. Sending too many messages to your subscribers could result in increased un-subscriptions and abuse complaints which may lead to your mailings being blocked.
• 39. Determine which mailings in your communication plan would be good candidates.
• 40. Set a time limit for groups or individuals who are not engaged subscribers or too your messages and has shown no interest and start cleaning.
• 41. Make sure you have the best and right person to manage your online community.  Bjmannyst.com can help with online community management.
• 42. If your plan is to improve your branding strategy. Bjmannyst.com can help.
• 43. Just looking for that competitive advantage or marketing boost. Bjmannyst.com can help with getting your message to business founders, entrepreneurs.
• 44. If you need more marketing ideas and advice, check out the founder of Founders Under 40’s blog.  http://mblog.bjmannyst.com

Women and girls want to be what guys want them to be. To be desirable by men, a woman must give some hint of sexuality regardless of her intelligence. To get ahead or be asked out, showing a little “skin’ doesn’t hurt. I think the continuous rise of the yoga pants and Miley Cyrus provocative performance will stop women from reaching position of power, wealth, and influence.
















I personally enjoy the yoga pants..I think it brings out the inner & outer beauty of a woman : ). In the right hand or on the right body & mind, it is a weapon.


When it comes to full equality for women, I’m going to have to blame the yoga pant craze and Miley Cyrus for halting women’s progress.


The yoga pants are suppose to boost a woman's body image confidence but what it fails to do is reduce the number of insecure women. Insecurity is a b$^#& on a woman. Some guys know how to exploit women’s insecurities and some guys find that’s the most scary thing about a woman.


Miley Cyrus & yoga pants are either creating more insecure girls or savvy women or very happy men or miserable relationships . In the long run women cannot reach equal equality. 


Why? Men don’t have to sexualize themselves to gain power, wealth, and influence. A woman has to however she decides how far she takes it. Oprah Winfrey , Martha Stewart, Lady Gaga did it. It is the nature of a woman to be a desirable sexual creature., blame God for that.


I’m no expert on women but I do love women. I’ve seen women come in diverse packages. There are plenty of stories of women going on dates only so the guy can pay & dine her at a five star restaurant. Girls flirting and using their sexuality to increase their commission. There are women that will have an emotional breakdown if you don’t tell them you love them everyday. There are independent women that believe they don’t have a need for a man. There are down-to-earth women.


From a guy who loves women, ---girls & women be yourself enjoy your yoga pants, Miley Cyrus, body, mind, sexuality & be liberated to choose how you live your life. 






We guys are simple creatures, ....I bet a guy invented the yoga pant : ) A marketing genius, a win-win-win!!!! product.




 P.S. If you women:

• love your body, mind, love yourself in your yoga pants 
• have awesome -full clothed, appropriate pics, 
• 18+ and don’t mind sharing it with the world, 
• Have some great stories, tips, ideas, for other women 
• Go to http://pushmagazine.bjmannyst.com , click forum , scroll down to topic “Women & Their Yoga Pants” , & share stories, & pics

WE LOVE WOMEN ALL AROUND THE WORLD!!!!! YOU CHOOSE HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE!!!!

It was a great privileged to come across fortune magazines new issue and it had some interesting bio & profile of 50 powerful women, powerful women.

Like any guy, I wondered who would I go out with in a heartbeat?  I just could not choose one so if any one of the powerful women have an opening for a God like guy with a 10 foot pole, give me a shout : ). 

Seriously checkout their stories, i always admire women, minorities, and others who face adversity and came out a better and stronger person.  

To the women entrepreneurs, women founders and powerful women around the world, I & Members of Founders Under 40 Group (www.foundersunder40.com) would like to congratulate you on your success.


You are the role models to everyone not just girls. 

Some of the powerful women to look up and link:

Julia Hartz,
Jules Pieri
Leila Janah
Maria Rios
Rose Wang

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-powerful-women/

 

 

Win me!

• Find out what excites different customer segments, and create a value proposition to satisfy them.
• Get the customer to talk about your positive attributes to the right people, especially on social media.
• Be passionate about educating customers when you sell to them, and make installation and activation as smooth as possible. 

 

 

Delight me!

• Deliver an exciting product experience that makes you different from competitors in at least one area important to your customers. 
• Nobody likes receiving bills, but at least keep customers from complaining by providing bills that are clear and accurate.
• Be a champ about resolving issues. 
• Create pleasant and effective processes for upgrading, cross-selling, renewing and relocation services. 

 

 

Keep me!

• Let your high-value customers know they are your high-value customers—and shower them with rewards. 
• Know how to proactively detect when your customers are disappointed—and know how to change their minds. 
• When customers opt to cancel, have a plan for bringing them back (at least the ones you want to keep).

 

*Originally written by a different author 

 

 

 

Here are 10 tips to help you leave the perfect voicemail and, consequently, a good impression.

• Think through what you are going to say before you place the call

. When men hear the beep, they often freeze up and forget what they wanted to say. If you want to be the go-to guy at work, then you have to exhibit competence on all levels. Don’t spoil your confident image by hemming and hawing and filling your messages with “uhhhhs,” and “ummmms.” If it’s a really important call, consider writing out what you want to say beforehand. If the person picks up, great, you now have some notes to remember what you wanted to talk about. If they don’t answer, you can leave a clear and concise message.

• State your name first.

You would think this would be so basic that it shouldn’t even be mentioned. However, I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten voicemails where people go on and on and I don’t even know who’s talking to me until the very end. Pretty annoying.

• State your number right after your name

. Many people wait until the very end of the message to state their number. This will irritate the receiver of your message because if he doesn’t get it down, he then has to sit through the whole damn message again to hear it repeated.

Repeat your phone number twice. People seem to forget that the receiver of their message has to write the number as you say it. Don’t rush through it. Even when you say it slowly, it’s hard to get down the first time. So repeat it again, so they can check to be sure they got it down right.

• State the purpose of your call.

In as few words as possible, state why you’re calling. Is it in regards to an interview appointment? Are you following up on a previous meeting?

Find some common ground. If you’re cold calling someone, your voicemail is your 30 second chance to make a connection and leave a good impression. One of the best ways to make a connection in that short amount of time is mentioning a mutual acquaintance. You could also mention a shared affiliation with an organization.

• Be brief.

Don’t make your listener resent you for leaving a 5 minute long message. People are busy. Listening to 5 minute phone messages is not on the top of their priorities and wastes their time. Many callers seem to think they are the only person in the world leaving a voicemail for a particular person. Yet a dozen other people feel the same way and a man ends up holding the phone to his ear for an hour.

• Leave a specific request.

What do you want your listener to do? Sure, you want them to call you back, but why? To answer a question? To set up an appointment? People will appreciate it if you give them specific actions for their call back. That way they’ll know they won’t be wasting a lot of time on the call back trying to figure out what you want.

• Consider leaving your e-mail in addition to your phone number.

People like choices. Some people like to have conversations on the phone, while others prefer communicating through e-mail. You don’t know what kind of person your listener will be, so leave the option on the table. For many, e-mail correspondence is less threatening and might actually encourage them to reach out to you.

Be Brief. Did I mention be brief? Yeah? Make sure to do it.

 

*Original written by B & K McKay

  1. Consistency Counts: Prospect Daily!

Salespeople acquire new clients, and to do so, they necessarily open relationships. Prospecting is the art of opening new relationships. The new business opportunities that later turn into sales are initially identified through prospecting, making prospecting the lifeblood of sales.

The first way to improve your prospecting results is to acknowledge its importance to your sales results and treat it accordingly.


Improving your prospecting results begins with setting aside the time and the energy to prospect each and every day. And, yes, I do mean each and every day. You would never suggest that you could only close on Thursday afternoons, and it is ridiculous to suggest that there is only a single time at which you can be effective prospecting. It is equally ridiculous to suggest that your prospects are only open to taking your calls on Mondays and Fridays. Those are generalizations and all generalizations are lies.


Write a weekly plan making time to prospect every day. It is best to set aside the time first thing in the morning to ensure it gets done before the world makes other demands of you.

2. Turn Off the Distractions

Turn off the Internet. Turn off your email. Turn off your Smart Phone. Focus.

Tell your friends you have a new found discipline and that you need their support; promise to catch up with them later.


Hang a sign on your door saying “Do Not Disturb! Prospecting!” If you don’t have a door, use string and hang the sign over your desk.

3. Use Every Method Available

Prospecting is the activity of opening new relationships, but it isn’t really what we are focused on here. We are focused on the outcome that is better described as opening new business relationships to identify potential new business opportunities. There are many ways to do this, and all of them are effective sometimes.



To prospect well, you need to focus your time and energy on what works best for you, but not exclusively. If you are great at cold calling, you should absolutely focus on cold calling. But that doesn’t mean that you should never use email marketing, inbound marketing, networking, trade shows and conferences, direct mail, social networking, or referrals. You should include all of these tools in your arsenal.



Make a list of all of the methods that you can and will use to prospect. Plan the time that you will set aside for each method and how many prospects you will gain from your effort. For example, you might commit to attending one networking event per month with the result that you acquire two new prospects from each networking event. Measure these results and focus on what generates the greatest return on your investment of time, but remember that your prospects may have their own opinion on how they best like to be approached, and you shouldn’t exclude any method.



Two things cause poor prospecting results. The first is not spending enough time prospecting. The other is ineffective prospecting. This mostly comes down to language choices. It comes down to what you are saying when you prospect.

4. Write Scripts

There is no substitute for scripts.



“But wait!” you say. “I am a professional salesperson and I can’t sound like I am using a script!” I hear you loud and clear. And you can’t sound like someone that your prospect isn’t interested in meeting either.

First you have to recognize that you are already using a script. The words that you use when prospecting (and on sales calls, by the way), are choices that are comfortable to you because you have rehearsed them. They are comfortable to you because you have them memorized, not because you are reading them. But this doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best language choices.



Your effectiveness is improved by choosing carefully the word that use, making observations about what is working and what isn’t working. This takes an awareness, focus, and discipline. It also allows you to experiment with language choices to see what is most effective.



Write scripts for each of the prospecting methods you use. Write responses to the common objections you hear. Rehearse them. If you are part of a great sales team, do this together and rehearse them together. Commit the best language to memory and replace the unwritten and ineffective scripts you are already using.

5. Focus on the Outcome

The outcome of prospecting is to open the relationship. This almost always involves obtaining the commitment for an appointment.



Effectiveness in prospecting is improved by simply focusing on the outcome. This means that you don’t allow your prospecting to turn into a needs analysis, a presentation, or a discussion about the merits of your product or service. It means you apply a laser-like focus on scheduling the appointment.



The reason some salespeople struggle focusing on the outcome of an appointment and the reason often they slip into the sales mode is because they feel that they have to prove that they can create value for the prospect during their prospecting activity. But prospecting has a very different goal, namely, the opening of the exploration of the possibility that you might be able to create value and do something together. Selling, at this point, is premature.



There is no list to make, no plan to write here. Just know that a successful outcome here is almost always an appointment. It doesn’t matter how much you liked them or how much they liked you if you didn’t schedule an appointment.

6. Get Good at Cold Calling

There is too much to write here about how to get good at cold calling. But it is important that you have it in your repertoire, and that you build your competency picking up the phone and scheduling an appointment.

Cold calling is still one of the fastest ways to schedule appointments and to open relationships, and the very best salespeople are the very best at cold calling. They are also the very best at all other forms of prospecting, and the only salespeople I have found that are willing to consistently ask for referrals, something else salespeople avoid.


Start cold calling.

7. Nurture Relationships Over Time

Even when you use all of the ideas above, you are still going to hear “no.” You are going to hear it a lot. But relationships, including business relationships, are built over time. Your consistent and unrelenting pursuit of your dream clients is part of a longer-term plan for success and not a quick fix.



Consistency here means that these prospects hear from you more than sporadically. It means they hear from you frequently and with all the predictability of the Sun rising each morning.



Your calls, your thank you cards, your letters, your white papers, your surveys, your studies, your newspaper and web clippings, your constant attempts to find a way to create some value before claiming any all add up over time.



Some of the best relationships and the biggest deals will take the longest time to win, and your consistent nurturing of these relationships will open opportunities for you over time. This approach proves that you are not going to disappear like so many of your peers, that you are truly interested in working with them, that you are a professional who executes well, and that you are determined. These are some of the attributes that people look for in salespeople and partners.



Write a nurturing plan. What will you do to create value for your dream clients even before they decide to set an appointment with you? How often will you call? How often will they receive something from you? What will they receive? What will it say about you? How will it create trust?



Conclusion



Salespeople open relationships. Opening relationships is built upon the ability to prospect. Follow these steps to improve your prospecting results


*Originally written by S. Anthony

                          

Most folks who are annoying are unaware of how they come across to others.

But that lack of self-awareness could be hurting a sales career. After all, who wants to do business with someone who makes them annoyed, anxious, or even angry? Consider colleagues, too. Teamwork boosts sales, yet if you're annoying, your team may be keeping you out of the loop. What about your sales manager? You may not get that plum territory or account if you annoy your boss.

To stop being annoying, you must first recognize that there's a problem. The following are some examples of annoying behaviours. See if they're familiar:

• Being very aggressive. Some buyers respond positively to aggressive sales tactics, but many, perhaps most, do not. It's one thing to be assertive and action oriented; it's quite another to be pushy and aggressive.
• Not knowing your audience. Sales professionals must be able to adapt to any type of personality and style the buyer may have. If the prospect wants to hear numbers, be ready with numbers. If the prospect is a "big picture" thinker, forget the numbers and stick to broad themes.
• Not listening. A stereotypical no-no in sales is talking incessantly. Don't become so focused on your own needs that you don't listen to the client. Note that not listening can also exhibit itself through arrogance, being overly demanding, and consistently monopolizing conversations.
• Talking jargon. Many salespeople can become guilty of talking over prospects' heads with lots of techno babble. Don't rely too heavily on industry terms. 

How do you know when you're annoying people? One of the surest ways is to watch their body language. When turned off by annoying behavior, people look around or turn sideways as if they're ready to leave. Their smiles may turn to frowns. They may start crossing their arms, moving away from you, or having less and less eye contact. What people say and how they say it can be revealing. Do you often find that at sales meetings you're interrupted or that your audience doesn't listen? If you dominate the conversation, you may well be annoying people.


If you really want to improve, get a person you trust to go with you on a sales call or listen in on a phone call, and ask for feedback. Then brainstorm ways you can do better. The best way to break a habit is to establish another, more constructive habit.


For example, if you're a constant talker, stop talking. If you tend to be silent, make an effort to open up. Then practice, practice, practice. The more you do it, the more pleasant you'll become to work with.
– Selling Power Editors

 

1) You know something about them.

First things first: You need to make sure your emails convey that you actually know something about your recipients. Why? Well number one, people like to know they’re not just providing you with information about themselves for no reason. But more importantly, you capture people’s attention when you make things about them. Show them you’re paying attention to what they’re telling you about themselves. If your form asks where they live, or what size their business is, or their role at their company, use that information!
Segmentation is important when you nurture your leads because it allows you to target each individual lead more closely. Let's say you own a horseback riding school. Some of your leads may be potential students who have never ridden a horse in their lives before. And maybe you also have a bunch of more advanced riders in your database. You’ll probably want to send those very different leads something completely different, right? Just make sure your personalization goes beyond using the person’s first name in your email. You know more important things about them, and you should show them that.

2) You are aware of their needs and interests, or are looking to learn what they are.

The best marketing is focused around your leads and what they want and need, not what you and your company are looking to get from them. Therefore, your emails should show your readers you care about what they need and what their goals are. If you don’t already know this information, ask for it! A simple “How can I help?” email that doesn’t contain any links to download something actually makes for a great lead nurturing email, because it not only opens up a dialogue with your leads, but it also allows them to provide you with a better understanding of what it is they’re looking for and hoping to get from your company. Once you’re equipped with this information, you can begin your next email with “I understand that your biggest challenge is ______,” and that should have them hooked.

3) You have something valuable to offer them.

Okay, now your leads know you’re looking out for their needs. So what? So, you have a way to help them! Once you’ve identified these interests and needs, you can start sending them content that helps them learn more about these areas, or any other resources you think they might find useful. Make it clear in your emails that you not only understand what your leads need, but also that you have a way to help. Think back to our horseback riding school example in number 1. Those advanced horseback riders in your database probably wouldn't appreciate your introductory guide to horseback riding, but that's probably a great offer for the ones who've never ridden a horse before. See what we mean?

4) You know why this offer is valuable to them. 

Arguably more important than simply having a valuable offer for your leads is conveying to them exactly why that offer is valuable to them. Why should they download your ebook? What are they going to learn? What are they going to be able to do differently or better after reading it? Maybe you're a B2B company, and your offer is to provide a free consultation for some aspect of their business. How exactly is this going to help them? Why should they sign up? Assume that the default reaction to your offer is always “Why should I bother?” and tell them exactly why. It’s not enough to position your offer in terms of its content. You have to position it in terms of its value, too.

5) Why they should trust you.

You know how much spam is out there these days. Seriously, how many junk emails are you getting? The fact of the matter is, whether or not they think your content is going to be useful is not the only thing your leads are considering when deciding whether or not to open your emails. They’re also deciding how much they trust you.
If your company has a strong reputation in your industry, great – you probably don’t have much to worry about. If you’re still building up your authority, your emails need to make it extremely clear that you are a trustworthy source of information. How? First of all, send quality content. Don’t be pushing out unreliable or low-quality content just so you have content to use in your emails. Second, use trust seals (e.g. BBB) and privacy policies on your site, or include them in your emails. Third, make sure the language of your emails comes off as friendly, not spammy. And most importantly, keep your emails relevant. Spam emails are never relevant, and almost never personalized.

6) Why they’d be missing out if they didn’t take advantage of this offer.

Here’s where the real convincing comes in. To really seal the deal, you have to go one step further than conveying the value of your offer. You have to create a sense of urgency. Don’t just tell them why they should take advantage of your offer, tell them why they’ll be missing out if they don’t. No one wants to fall behind in their industry. No business is comfortable knowing that their competitors are outpacing them, staying more relevant, using better tools, driving more revenue. Even in a B2C context, most consumers these days are concerned with staying ahead of the curve with the latest products and technologies. Use this information to incentivize your leads to take action. Create the need, address it, and then fill it.
 

7) You're looking to help them, not you.

We glossed over this point earlier, but it's definitely worth more emphasis. This is ultimately the most crucial idea you could communicate in your marketing emails. The second your recipients think you’re just looking to get what you want, you lose them. They’re not interested in being marketed to. They’re interested in solving their problems. Your job as a marketer is to figure out how to get what you want, but by making it about them. Start your emails with “you” instead of “I”. Use the information you have about them. Target your content to their needs. Show them that you’re looking to help.
Emails can be pretty complex. You have to find the right content, the best positioning, the clearest language, the most appealing design, and then some. But really, the effectiveness of your emails at engaging and nurturing your leads essentially boils down to one thing: the way you communicate. If you pay close attention to what and how you’re communicating, you’ll be able to optimize your emails to be far more effective, and start converting those leads into customers.
How well are your lead nurturing emails hitting these 7 communication must-haves?

* Originally written by a different author

       

                          
 

They have been looking in the wrong place. The real problem typically turns out to be not closing techniques, but opening techniques. A careful examination of the evidence often shows that their sales people have been starting off on the wrong foot, and rushing the all-important early stages of the sales engagement.

 

An opportunity to explore

If a sales opportunity isn’t set up in the right way from the start, it becomes progressively harder to bring it to a successful conclusion. And brute-force attempts to get the situation back on track (whether though clumsy closing strategies or any other desperate measure) more often than not result in the whole deal getting derailed.

You see, the early stages of any sales engagement inevitably have a profound impact on the future evolution of the deal. This is no time to rush, to prematurely pitch your product or promote your company, or to gloss over critical qualification questions. Instead, you need to take your time and explore the situation thoughtfully.

What’s the cost of doing nothing?

Most top-performing sales people do this instinctively, and with good reason. They have far too much respect for their own time (let alone anyone else’s) to squander it pursuing poorly qualified opportunities that are unlikely to buy, or that they are unlikely to win, or that would consume far too much of their resources to ever be profitable. Better to find that out sooner rather than later.

That’s why the early discovery phase is so important. You first want to satisfy yourself that a real issue exists. Having the prospect acknowledge a need is just a small part of this. If the prospect cannot identify the potential costs, risks and consequences to their company of not dealing with the issue, it’s unlikely that they will ever be persuaded to spend money on solving it.

Why now?

But even if the prospect acknowledges a clear issue, and can associate significant costs and risks with sticking with the status quo, that’s still not enough to justify investing sales resources on the opportunity. You also need to understand who else is affected, and how, and whether they are also likely to see the problem as worth solving.

Is the issue a new one? If so, what has triggered the change? If the issue is a long-standing one, what is causing the prospect to think that this is the right time to address it? How have they tried to deal with the issue before? What were the results? Why has it become so important that something is done now, rather than at some indeterminate stage in the future?

Resisting the itch to pitch

It’s not enough to establish that your prospect has a clear motivation to change. You also need to determine whether the criteria they are likely to use to evaluate potential solutions play to your strengths, and if and how you might be able to reshape the prospect’s vision of a solution in your favour.

By resisting the “itch to pitch” and investing instead in creating the conditions for a successful sale, you’ll avoid wasting far more time and resources later on in the sales cycle – not just your own time, but that of your colleagues and – ultimately – your prospect as well. And you’ll have a much basis for qualifying unwinnable deals out early.

More haste, less speed

Rushing through the early stages of a deal in an attempt to close it faster almost always has the opposite effect. So how can you get your sales people to slow down and build the proper foundations? One of the best ways to ensure this is by implementing a documented sales process and formalised qualification criteria.

Define what you expect the sales person to know before they can promote a deal to the next stage in the sales process. Pay particular emphasis to getting solid answers to “why would the prospect buy anything?”, “why would they take action now?” and “why would they choose us?” Never mind how your sales person feels about the deal. Insist that they show you the evidence.

They might not thank you for being a hard task master now, but they will later. Start by insisting that the requalify all the existing deals in the pipeline. Don’t be surprised if the result trashes the value of their pipelines. But at least you’ll know the true state of affairs, and you’ll be able to do something about it

*Originally written by other author

5 simple questions first.

Whether it’s your next big business or a unique marketing campaign, when that next ambitious idea hits, ask yourself these five questions—and if the answer is yes to all five, well, roll up your sleeves and make it happen!

1. Does my idea solve a problem? What’s that saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention?” Ideas that are born out of needs come complete with a built-in demand. It’s harder to sell someone something they don’t need.
2. Is this an idea I can execute? The worst thing you can do is get your heart—and any investment money— set on an idea that you simply can’t pull off in the end. Give yourself the time to really think through how this idea is going to work. Do you have the resources? Do you have the time or the budget to make it successful? Challenge yourself to ask the hard questions, and get specific.
3. Is this idea something people will talk about or share? The best ideas are ones that market themselves. You want to pour your effort into something that’s going to make people talk or something that’s going to “turn heads” virtually. If your idea has that surprising element or share factor built in, it is much more likely to be successful. Word of mouth is king!
4. Does this idea have a shelf life? Maybe it seems like a good idea today, but is it something that will be a good idea in six months or five years? Think hard about where your market is now and where you think it’s headed. Does your idea still solve a problem down the road or will it still be shareable? For example, you know that technology will probably only get more and more advanced as time progresses. Knowing this, does this make your idea more valuable in the future, or less valuable? Put your idea in the context of some of those future external market conditions or internal business conditions and then evaluate it.
5. Is the value of this idea worth the investment? Crazy ideas can be crazy smart—or a crazy waste of everyone’s time, depending on the idea. If you’ve already answered yes to the previous questions, sit down and ask yourself if the outcome is going to be worth the input. Will your idea bring enough value to the end user that you have to make it happen?

 

*Original author unknown

You’ve secured a meeting with a potential investor.

You must first understand the makeup of the audience and the objective of the meeting.

Being completely prepared involves fully understanding the situation before making the presentation.

1. How much time do I have? Typically, the first meeting with an investor will last 45 minutes to one hour. Arrive 15 minutes early. Prepare a pitch deck that you can present in 20 minutes, leaving time for late starts and questions. Be respectful of the time they’ve allotted. If you are interrupted or time is cut short, try not to let it throw you off. If an investor is not paying attention, continue to be respectful and professional.
2. What is the venue like? You’ll generally present in a boardroom at their location. A site visit to your company is usually the next step in the investment evaluation process.
3. What time of day will you be meeting? Take the meeting whenever the investors want to see you.
4. Who is the audience? Try to find out which members of the investment team will be attending the session. You’ll also want to determine if anyone else will be in the room (e.g., outside consultants).
5. What is their background? This is very important to help tailor your talk. Will you be talking with technically-savvy investors with deep experience in the targeted space or general investors? Do they have connections to help you get financed or to help you build your company further? Ask around and get as much information as possible about them in advance. Do your homework.
6. What do they expect of us? Investors expect a professional, strategic presentation, a demonstration of your innovation (if appropriate) and a leave-behind document.
7. Why was I asked to speak? As discussed above, this is a critical step to assess whether or not the investor will continue to investigate your opportunity. They are assessing you, your team and your business opportunity, as well as how you handle questions and objections. The investors want to confirm that you are someone they can back, who can build a company and raise financing from other sources.
8. What do I want them to do? You’ll want to think about what you want to achieve from your meeting. Do you want to move to the next step in due diligence? Do you want them to provide business or financing leads? Investors have very specific investment mandates. Even though your opportunity may not be a fit for them, most investors will provide advice and contacts if you’ve convinced them that you have a strong business proposition.
9. What visual medium is most appropriate for this particular situation or audience? Typically, a PowerPoint pitch deck is presented using an overhead projector. Call ahead to make sure that one is available.
10.   What is the fundamental purpose of my talk? Investors can help you to build your company by providing access to funding or opening their networks. You want to sell them on your concept/company to move to the next step with them. It is unlikely that they will open their cheque book until they complete further due diligence.
11.   What’s the story? What is my absolutely most central point? Or, what do you want them to remember after you’ve left?  Clearly communicate your fundamental business proposition. What is the pain in the market? How does your solution solve the problem? What is the need you’re trying to meet? What sustainable competitive advantage do you provide? You must demonstrate throughout your presentation why you are the right company/person/management team to execute your plan.
    

Your presentation is the first real step in selling your venture and the investors’ due diligence. They are assessing how you present, your level of professionalism and how you respond to questions or challenges. Fundamentally, they are making a decision as to whether or not the chemistry is there for them to work with you over the long term. Ensure that you are comfortable and confident with your material and its presentation.
 
Decide in advance who else will present—include the presenters in your dress rehearsal. Since the presentation will last about 20 minutes and involve about 10 slides, there should be no more than two people presenting. The CEO, along with either the technical or financial lead if necessary, should make the presentation.
 

*Originally Written by another author Garr R

*BJ Mannyst (www.bjmannyst.com) is a marketing service provider to SMB service companies.

 

This past few months Founders Under 40™ group reached 13000+ members, FU40 Group, www.foundersunder40.com and it's growing every second. 

We want to thank the members that support and contribute everyday, our partners like BJ Mannyst for their endless marketing and business support.

 

As always we are always open to more support and assistance to take this to the next level.

 ***if interested to partner, promote, work, support, or other, please contact jenn[at]bjmannyst.com   

Without patiently testing for actual business that offers an invaluable service, entrepreneurs sometimes get caught up in the number of signups or on the thousands of site visitors who checkout their site and think that’s enough reason to build a business.  And some VC’s throw millions of dollars on these hunches.

Entrepreneurship is hard work and it can be harder if you work by yourself so we put together some useful tips to help you get through or until you find your co-founders and advisers. Remember there’s nothing wrong with being a solo-founder. Either you are not ready, you haven’t found the one, or you just like working by yourself initially. Below are some tips to handle yourself. 

 

What drives you: If you’ve chosen to pursue this path. You better make sure it’s on  the right path. Here’s what I mean. Take some time to know what makes you happy and what doesn’t. What are you willing to sacrifice for your dream. Next, make effort to test your ideas and question if the market you’re chasing is big enough to attract other founders and financial assistance. And get a good ROI. 

 

We all need friends: There are times you will be lonely, frustrated, and discourage so it is important you have someone or someplace to go to recharge yourself. Joining a group like Founders Under 40 Group is a perfect place. You can interact freely or vent or rant opening on their un-moderated open forum on M’s Push Magazine, pushmgazine.bjmannyst.com   or  ask for advice on their social networks or upgrade to get access to more personal attention. Go out for dinner, go see a movie, go to a public events, etc. 

 

Always Give thanks: always be grateful even though your business ideas has hit a dead-end or it’s growing so fast. What I always do is remind myself that somewhere in the world someone would kill to have half of what I have. So stop the self pity party or the God complex.  Be grateful for your successes in life. 

 

Personal Development: This one is really up to you. Your life is a journey and in that journey you grow by reaction or grow by choice. It means pickup a book, watch biography video of people you admin and develop yourself. The school of life never stops. 

 

Mind & Body: When you take away your car, money,house, children, sex, etc. all that you can take full control of is your mind & body. Feed it good food so you can continue to get good things out of it.

 

 

*Written by the Founder of Founders Under 40™ Group. The fastest growing unconventional founders community in the world.

As sales people, we are trained to ruthlessly seek out the decision maker and focus all our efforts on that individual.  Whether it’s to understand their needs, provide insight, pitch a solution, our focus is on finding the decision maker and locking in on that individual.


We’re trained to ask pointed questions like, “Are you the decision maker?”  There’s only one answer that a customer will give to that question–it’s “Yes,”  or the variant, “Yes, I’m involved in making the decision.”  As a side note, do we ever expect the customer to say, “No, I just had idle time on my hands and thought it would be interesting to spend it with a sales person on something I have no interest in.”
But as I review many sales situations, finding the decision maker (s) is a critical issue.  Too often, we can’t find the decision maker (s) or we can’t get access to them. 

Here are some challenges I see sales people facing:


We focus our efforts through our friends/buddies (Read — the wrong people):  This is one of the biggest sales errors I encounter.  We tend to focus our sales efforts through the people we have always worked with, the people that have been our friends, and sponsors in the past.  While these are great relationships to nurture, and they may give some insights on the sales situation, if they aren’t important in the decision making process, we may be wasting our time.


We try to find “the” decision maker:  In larger organizations, more people may be involved in the decision and even more people can stop a decision.  We need to make sure we’ve determined who is involved in each decision, the nature of their involvement, what the personal win for them is, their attitudes toward us and the alternatives, and how they exercise power and influence.  We also need to understand who influences them.  In truth, we are dealing with a network of people having varying stakes in the decision, but all of whom are involved and who we must engage.  Ignoring them, focusing on the person who seem most senior or has the biggest title puts us at great risk to fail.


The customer doesn’t know how they will make a decision:  Unless you sell products and services that customers buy frequently, there’s a high probability they may not know how to buy.  They may not have the right people involved in the decision making process, the decision may be beyond their capabilities, responsibilities, or authority.  Often, sales people can provide great value in helping the customer organize to address an opportunity, make a decision, and buy.


Decision making is being pushed higher in the organization.  More an more, final decisions are being pushed higher in the organization.  Sometimes, unbelievably high.  As an example, not long ago, I had a conversation with the frustrated CMO of a Fortune 100 organization—he was the very top marketing guy in the company and managed a very large team of marketing and product managers.  His “signature authority” was limited to $50,000.  Despite his very senior level, he had to take many decisions to the CFO, the CEO, or even the board.


This poses a number of challenges to sales people.  We may simply (even with all our cleverest techniques) may not have access to the top decision makers.  We may “win” the decision at lower levels, but now we have to train the customer on how to sell up the food chain.  Many of our customers might be very uncomfortable with this.  They may lack the confidence, they may feel as though they are putting themselves at risk, or they may just do a bad job.  If we are to get a decision, we need to prepare our customers to be able to “sell” their decision to their executive teams.


Another thing may happen, the people we are working with may just run out of steam.  Going back to my friend, the CMO, he was very frustrated and was sharing his frustrations with me.  He had an outstanding proposal for some marketing programs from an agency.  They would cost several hundred thousand, but he was convinced they would produce great return.  He had the money in his budget to make the investment.  However, to get the decision approved, he would have to spend time with the CFO, the CEO, and 3 members of the board.  Rich told me, “I just don’t have the time or energy to get this thing done.  While I think the program will produce great results, the hassle of getting a decision made it just too big.  This is a tough position—we may have little recourse, but we have to convince them to take action, then work with them to prepare them to sell the decision.  Often, that requires us understanding what is important to the people they have to convince and shaping the arguments to address those issues.


There are lots of vetoer’s:  This is an unfortunate reality—there may be more people empowered with stopping something than making a decision and taking action.  We may not be able to identify all of them, but it’s dangerous to ignore them.  We may not have to convince them, we may just need to have them not exercise their veto rights.


So what’s a sales person to do?  Finding and engaging all the people involved in the decision making process is critical to moving business opportunities further.  It’s probably not as simple as “calling higher.”  As my CMO friend would point out, he reported to the CEO and was virtually as high up the food chain as he could get, but he still had constraints that he had to operate within.


There are many people involved in the decision making process, we need to engage many of them, we need to understand how power and influence will be exercised and invest more time (though not exclusively) in those with great power and influence for the specific decision we want made.
We have to prepare our customers to “sell” within the organization.  There will be decision-makers we simply will not be able to reach, so we have to prepare our customers to sell within their organization.
It’s no use ignoring this or trying to deny this.  Getting decisions made is getting more difficult.  It’s our job to navigate the process and help the customer with their decision-making process.


*Written by a Different Author: David B.

 

I know lots of times we emphasize the qualities of great boss. We spend our life worshiping and admiring our heroes. Dissecting every aspect of their character and how they became a success. Some of us imitate them. While it's great, most times we fail to identify the qualities of a bad manager and how it might be a reason for growing inefficiencies.  

So the following is a list:

 ------------------------------

 

Indecisive: constantly asking for more and more information, seeking more opinions and options.  

 

Information Secrecy: Hording information and treating employees like children. Thinking that people would not be able to comprehend  

 

Secrecy: "We can’t tell the staff," is something I hear managers say repeatedly. They defend this position with the argument that staff will be distracted, confused or simply unable to comprehend what is happening in the business. If you treat employees like children, they will behave that way -- which means trouble. If you treat them like adults, they may just respond likewise. Very few matters in business must remain confidential and good managers can identify those easily. The lover of secrecy has trouble being honest and is afraid of letting peers have the information they need to challenge him. He would rather defend his position than advance the mission. Secrets make companies political, anxious and full of  distrust. 

 

Oversensitivity: "I know she’s always late, but if I raise the subject, she’ll be hurt."  An inability to be direct and honest with staff is a critical warning sign. Can your   manager see a problem, address it headlong and move on? If not, problems won’t get resolved, they’ll grow. When managers say staff is too sensitive, they are usually  describing themselves. Wilting violets don’t make great leaders. Weed them out. Interestingly, secrecy and over-sensitivity almost always travel together. They are a bias against honesty. 

 

Love of procedure: Managers who cleave to the rule book, to points of order and    who refer to colleagues by their titles have forgotten that rules and processes exist to expedite business, not ritualize it. Love of procedure often masks a fatal inability to  prioritize -- a tendency to polish the silver while the house is burning. 

 

Preference for weak candidates: We interviewed three job candidates for a new position. One was clearly too junior, the other rubbed everyone up the wrong way and the third stood head and shoulders above the rest. Who did our manager want to hire? The junior. She felt threatened by the super-competent manager and hadn’t the confidence to know that you must always hire people smarter than yourself. 

 

Focus on small tasks: Another senior salesperson I hired always produced the most perfect charts, forecasts and spreadsheets. She was always on time, her data completely up-to-date. She would always volunteer for projects in which she had no core expertise -- marketing plans, financial forecasts, meetings with bank managers, the office move. It was all displacement activity to hide the fact that she could not do her real job. 

 

Allergy to deadlines: A deadline is a commitment. The manager who cannot set, and stick to deadlines, cannot honor commitments. A failure to set and meet  deadlines also means that no one can ever feel a true sense of achievement. You  can’t celebrate milestones if there aren’t any. 

 

Inability to hire former employees: I hired a head of sales once with (apparently) a luminous reputation. But, as we staffed up, he never attracted any candidates from his old company. He’d worked in sales for twenty years -- hadn’t he mentored anyone who’d want to work with him again? Every good manager has alumni, eager to join the team again; if they don’t, smell a rat. 

 

Addiction to consultants: A common -- but expensive -- way to put off making decisions is to hire consultants who can recommend several alternatives. While they’re figuring these out, managers don’t have to do anything. And when the consultant’s choices are presented, the ensuing debates can often absorb hours, days, months. Meanwhile, your organization is poorer but it isn’t any smarter. When the consultant leaves, he takes your money and his increased expertise out  the door with him. 

 

Long hours: In my experience, bad managers work very long hours. They think this  is a brand of heroism but it is probably the single biggest hallmark of incompetence. To work effectively, you must prioritize and you must pace yourself. The manager who boasts of late nights, early mornings and no time off cannot manage himself so you’d better not let him manage anyone else. 

 

Any one of these behaviors should sound a warning bell. More than two -- sound the alarm!

 

*written by a different author