Shun the Status Quo to See the Possibilities to Accomplish 20 Times as Much

Organizations usually underestimate the potential value of
the most important new information, technology, and ways of
operating. This error occurs because the new information or
resource unexpectedly makes untrue what has been undeniably
true in the past.

Achieving 2,000 percent solutions is a good example of this
tendency. While hundreds of organizations routinely
develop and implement such solutions every day, the
majority of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and
governments continue to focus on how to make 4, 5, or 6
percent improvements. With the same time, effort, and
resources, these people could be accomplishing hundreds of
times more!

What is a 2,000 percent solution? It's any way of
accomplishing 20 times more with the same time, effort, and
resources. Why would you shoot for less?

Here's an example: A best selling business book will
usually be read in part by fewer than 10,000 people. Chop
the book up instead into essays and provide those essays
for free over the Internet, and you will soon have over
500,000 readers. The time, effort, and expense of putting
up those essays will be less than finding an agent for a
book. Lead those essay readers to your Web site and you'll
sell more books than a best selling business book, and
you'll earn more profit because you won't have to split the
revenues with a publisher.

Disbelief: Limited Imagination and Blind Spots

The disbelief stall (a bad habit that delays improvements)
is based on a valid experience, lack of relevant
experience, or a previously established circumstance that
no longer pertains. The bigger the new idea, the more
likely it will boggle the minds of those involved.

Consider this: Over a hundred years ago, Alexander Graham
Bell supposedly offered his fledgling telephone business to
Western Union for $100,000. Western Union reportedly turned
him down cold, perceiving the telephone as an electrical
toy with a limited future. Bell himself initially saw the
telephone as limited to use as a substitute for town
criers. Householders wondered, "Why get a telephone when I
can step outside and talk to my neighbor over the back
fence?" The airplane, radio, computers, and the photocopier
were greatly underestimated in similar ways before becoming
the foundations for major industries. Major breakthroughs
change the possibilities of how we can lead our lives, and
we are slow to see that undeveloped potential.

STALL ERASERS

Creative People with Different Viewpoints

In checking out new information, technology, and
techniques, seek the help of people who enjoy creating new
solutions. You may find these open-minded people among
suppliers, new employees, customers, and outside experts,
including academics. If you don't have enough such people
to draw on, expand your circle of acquaintances.

In the same way that no two people have identical kinds of
curiosity and imagination, organizations likewise differ in
how they look at potential new solutions. You can easily
imagine that Intel, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, and
Disney would take quite different approaches to addressing
the same opportunity. You should examine your
organization's personality and orientation to consider how
your perspective can be expanded in useful ways, perhaps by
adding new partners and new competencies.

Positive Thinking Starts the Exponential Progress Engine

To overcome the disbelief stall, you need a positive
outlook. You have to believe that wonderful results are
just around the corner, if only you keep looking for
improvements.

Ask yourself a positive question about any possibility you
consider. For instance, imagine that you are being asked to
use a computer in a totally different and more difficult
way for the first time. Instead of fighting this new
assignment, ask yourself how the task could help you get
home sooner every night. A manager recently had a good
experience from opening himself up to this opportunity. An
IT expert noticed that the manager didn't know how to do a
mail merge, a way to produce custom documents for many
people on a list. At first, the manager resented the few
minutes of unexpected training. But that attitude soon
changed after many monotonous tasks were accomplished 20
times faster.

At the same time, it's even more helpful to adopt new
beliefs that open the doors to possibility. A good example
is that many people will never read this article because
they think it's far-fetched to find even one 2,000 percent
solution. A better belief to hold is that untapped 2,000
percent solutions abound in your most important opportunity
areas.

Other helpful attitudes include:

• Seeing roadblocks as opportunities in disguise

• Feeling that all events occur to help you improve

• Believing that large changes can be made quickly to
create positive results

• Being convinced that new technology can easily remove old
limitations

• Believing that high goals are more fun to pursue

STALLBUSTERS

Locate Blind Spots

The more often you hear about something, the more likely
the new thing is to be relevant to your organization. It
helps to seek out the new to speed up the process of
appreciating what's going on. To help identify your
organization's blind spots, ask yourself the following
questions:

• What complaints are customers making that you've chosen
to downplay?

• What things are your competitors doing that you have
decided to ignore?

• What things are the communities you do business in
talking about that you have ignored so far?

• What negative feedback have you been receiving from
employees for at least two years?

• What perceptions about your organization and industry are
you not addressing?

Evaluate the Implications of the Blind Spots

Ask yourself these questions about your blind spots:

• Which blind spots are in areas where your organization's
actions can improve or worsen your situation?

• What actions are needed to gain the most benefit or avoid
the most harm?

• When are actions needed to be most effective?

• What is the minimum evidence you need to know that
immediate action is needed?

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. Free advice on accomplishing 20 times
more is available to you by registering at
=====>

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Delighting Your User, Part Four: Showing and Maintaining Competence

Competence means providing correct, knowledgeable service,
performed with accuracy and confidence.

Competence is a two-part process. You must demonstrate
competence in the way you do your job, but you must also
find ways to maintain your technical competence.

Demonstrating Competence

Here are a couple of good techniques to use to demonstrate
your competence.

Tell the user what you are going to do before you do it.
This technique is called headlining, in the sense that a
newspaper article's headline tells you what you are going
to read before you read it. As a user, it is very
frustrating to be dealing with a technical support provider
who does not tell you what he or she is doing. When there
is silence on the phone, the user may be confused, and this
does not assure the user of your competence. You know you
have not done a good job of headlining if, after a period
of silence, your user says, "Are you still there?" The user
does not feel cared for if she has to guess if you are
still on the line.

Headlining is the mark of a professional Help Desk
provider. It is easy and quick to do, and creates a high
degree of end-user satisfaction. Use headlining when you
need to take a moment to look up some information in the
database. You can say, "It will take me just a minute to
look that up in the database." This gives the user the
assurance that you are working on their behalf.

Another way of providing assurance to users is to build
their confidence in your ability to help them. This can be
done with a solution statement delivered once you
understand and have confirmed the user's problem. A
solution statement simply tells the user that you can help
them solve the problem. You can say, "From what you have
told me, I know how to solve the problem."

Maintaining Technical Competence

Our world in Information Systems and Technology evolves so
quickly that maintaining technical competence can seem
overwhelming at times. Here are four keys to maintaining
your technical competence:

Be curious. Curious people are always exploring. When
you're curious, life is more interesting and you find new
ways of doing things, you find things you didn't even know
existed, and you maintain a childlike sense of wonder and
awe.

Read...a lot. The fact that you're reading this article
speaks highly of you. It's not that you're reading this
particular article (as much as your author wants to believe
that!), but that you're reading any article about how to do
your job better that speaks so highly of you. There are
thousands, perhaps millions, of blogs and forums on the Web
dealing with the same technologies you support. Microsoft
and most other vendors provide extensive support
documentation at their sites. Microsoft even has free
hands-on labs and how-to guides. Get one of the O'Reilly
Cookbooks for the technology you support and work through
recipes that are most interesting to you.

Build a sandbox. I first heard of an IT "sandbox" when I
was working with some individuals from Kimberly-Clark
Corporation in a PKI training session. The IT "sandbox" is
another name for a testing lab where you can experiment
without worrying about system failure. Today, it's often
not necessary to set up a physical lab with multiple
physical computers. Instead, you can use tools like
VMWare, Virtual PC, or Xen to create a virtualized lab
environment in which you can test and experiment to your
heart's content without worrying about affecting end-users.
Some virtualization products are available for free;
others at very low cost. (I use VMWare Workstation.) Use
Google to learn more about virtualization and the vendors
who create virtualization products.

Get trained! As a training provider to the IT world, you'd
certainly expect me to make this recommendation, but it's
important. Training, whether in a college classroom, a
seminar environment, in a workshop, or at a conference
exposes you to new ways of doing things and thinking about
things. Electronic delivery of training can be an
excellent solution, but participating in in-person classes
allows you to interact with the instructor and the other
students. It's through such interaction that you discover
new concepts and new solutions to old problems. I
discovered when I returned to college that just being in an
educational environment got me thinking in new and positive
ways. Additionally, great teachers and trainers challenge
you and help you step outside your comfort zone which is
how you affect positive change in your career and in your
life.

Being great at your job isn't necessarily easy, but it's
immensely rewarding in terms of personal satisfaction,
career options, and financial rewards.

Next week, we'll talk about empathy and its importance as
part of the tech support process.

----------------------------------------------------
Don R. Crawley is president/chief technologist at
soundtraining.net (http://www.soundtraining.net), the
Seattle firm specializing in business skills and technical
training for IT professionals. He works with IT pros to
enhance their work, lives, and careers. For Don's article,
"Ten Ways to Delight Your End-User", visit
http://www.soundtraining.net/onlinestore/items/item241.html

Why We Get Inconsistent Marketing Results

What motivates you to market your business…the REAL
motivation? Is it fear of not having enough money?
Imagining the ripple effect of helping your clients live
more authentic, vibrant lives? Looking at the photograph of
an aunt who swore you'd never amount to anything?

All potent enough motivators, for sure.

What's interesting to notice is whether your motivation is
going toward or going away energy. That's because when we
are motivated away from something, the results we get tend
to be erratic; when we are motivated toward, we get
consistent, escalating results. Let me explain with two
examples:

Leandra Leandra doesn't like marketing and self-promotion,
but she has to bring in a certain amount of money each
month from her private therapeutic practice for teens. So
each month, she trudges off to networking meetings and puts
up a new article on her website. Some months, she gets a
lot of response; other months, nary a call.

This is an example of away-motivated marketing. Leandra
markets only to stave off the financial wolf at the door.

What gets forgotten in her marketing equation is how much
she LOVES counseling teens. She's marketing because she
needs the money. Imagine how different her results might be
if Leandra's marketing was going toward her passion for
working with teens.

Frank Frank has an accounting background; he started his
career in a large accounting firm and then worked for
several large corporations. He's now a coach who works with
self-employed people who aren't comfortable with finances.
It was a no-brainer, he thought, to leverage his experience
in accounting when defining his niche.

His first year as a coach was quite successful. But this
year, he's been putting off his marketing tasks. Seems like
everything is such a chore: organizing teleclasses, putting
out a consistent newsletter, following up leads. Naturally,
his business is not thriving; it's not down the drain, but
it pokes along rather than races, like it did his first
year.

The problem is that Frank really wants to be coaching
people considering leaving the corporate world to develop
work they find more meaningful. His marketing got great
results his first year out, because it was new and exciting
to be out on his own. But marketing to his self-employed
niche has become a "should"-one of the key signs of going
away motivation.

Finding yourself engaging in a "should" or "must" or "have
to" is a big clue that you may be engaging in the less
reliable going away motivation. Think about it…is it any
fun at all to do something because you "should?" Yuck!

A couple of other clues to going away motivation:

1. Using negations. I market my practice because I don't
want to lose clients. (What DO you want?)
2. Comparing. I market my practice because if I do, I'll
have more money and a better life. (This is a little
trickier. Notice that by comparing, the focus is on what
you don't have right now, not on what you want.)

Going toward motivation is all about getting clear on what
we want and then putting our marketing muscle behind that.

So…what do YOU want?

----------------------------------------------------
Linda Puig is a newsletter marketing expert, a writer with
nearly 30 years' professional experience and president of
Claire Communications, which provides high-quality,
low-cost articles to busy professionals who don't have the
time or inclination to write articles.
http://www.articlesforsale.net

High Performance Teams: 9 Essential Ingredients for Team Building

"Nothing is so infectious as example." Francois de La
Rochefoucauld

In conducting team building training and management skills
training all over the world since 1995, I've discovered
there are nine essential ingredients that consistently crop
up in creating high performance teams. Listed below are the
top nine beginning with communication.

High Performance Teams: 9 Things a Leader Can Do To
Energize and Motivate Employees To Extraordinary
Performance:

1) Communication: Open, honest communication between team
members and the team leader about an organization's vision
and clearly defined goals. Not to mention a team leader
needs training in people skills and how to manage people
effectively. Most team leaders are promoted based on their
"hard skills" or technical skills, but it doesn't mean they
can create high performance teams. They must become
effective at communicating, listening and resolving
conflict. And everyone on the team needs training in
conflict resolution and how to be an effective
communicator. Each team member has been raised differently
from childhood in terms of what's acceptable communication.
So training helps to keep the team leader and team members
on the same page. The key is in becoming tactfully direct.

2) High performance teams possess purpose and direction.
They have clearly defined goals, objectives and
responsibilities. When I go into an organization and
conduct team building training, team leaders tell me all
the time how important it is for teams to understand their
roles, expectations, and responsibilities. Team members
want to know what specific goals and objectives they're
being evaluated on. Make sure the performance objectives
are measurable, quantifiable, and in writing for
accountability. Have goals and objectives for the team as a
whole as well as for each team member and include everyone
on these goals. For example, if team members are in sales,
a goal states in writing that each of them are to develop
ten new accounts representing gross sales of at least
$20,000 by December 31 of this year.

3) A key component to high performance teams is active
participation, accountability and sense of ownership on the
team leader's end as well as from the team members. Being a
more powerful leader means being an involved leader.
Participation and ownership also sets a precedent for
what's expected of each team player – teamwork. One
contributor to low team morale is when one or two team
members hide out in the success of the rest of the team.
Everyone else is doing the work. I guarantee you this is
not going unnoticed. Hold everyone to the same high
standards. Start taking progressive disciplinary action if
a team member is not doing his or her job. If you don't
take progressive disciplinary action you'll lose
credibility as a team leader who enables poor performance.

Effective Team Leaders Are Listeners

4) Trust between team members and the team leader.
Effective team leaders are listeners. They solicit feedback
truly be productive if there isn't trust between the team
members and the team leader. Always do and listen to
employees' suggestions and concerns. It's difficult for a
team to be productive if there isn't trust between the team
members and team leader. Always do what you say you are
going to do. That one thing you promise your team that you
can't deliver on will be the one thing they remember. Many
employees don't quit their jobs. They quit their team
leaders and managers.

5) Strong, effective leadership filtering down is essential
to effective team building and creating high performance
teams. A team leader must possess the ability to coach.
Having a "coach mentality" and helping team members to
grow, develop and mature is a necessary skill. It's part of
your job! Don't do everything for your team members
otherwise they never learn to do things themselves. Even if
you're thinking, "Well, if I want it done right I might as
well do it myself." Look at the word "team leader." You are
there to lead.

6) Proper resources, funding and training necessary to get
the job done. Do you have the right people for the job?
Your people are your most important resource. Have they
been properly trained? Do they have the right equipment to
do the job effectively? Training is an important part of
team building and leadership. Employees tell me all the
time they want additional training to sharpen their skills.
They want to be given essential tools that will develop
their skill set. It makes them feel valued and important.
As if their organization is willing to invest in them for
the long term.

7) High performance teams believe in equality and a shared
vision, shared sense of purpose. Everyone has a sense of
inclusion. Everyone treats each other equally, fairly and
objectively. The whole team is included in goals and even
social events.

8) Respect. The team leader has respect for the team. This
boosts the confidence of the team members. They have
respect for each other which leads to increased morale,
productivity and a high performing team.

9) Willingness to share job knowledge, skills, and ideas.
The team leader is the role model. If you're willing to
share knowledge and ideas, you're training your team to do
the same. Better yet, include "willingness to share job
knowledge, skills and ideas" in team members' performance
reviews. If they know they're being evaluated on these
factors, they're more likely to perform.

Another ingredient central to creating high performance
teams: it's imperative that both the team leader and the
team have a positive attitude. As one group of team leaders
told me, "A key element of any successful team is no bad
attitudes allowed!"

----------------------------------------------------
Colleen Kettenhofen is a professional speaker and author
who has presented in 47 states and six countries. She is
co-author of "The Masters of Success," featured on NBC's
Today Show. Popular topics: leadership, management skills,
difficult people, public speaking. For free articles and
e-newsletter visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com Colleen is
available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars.
(800)323-0683 http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com

Now Is a Great Time to Be a Woman Small Business Owner

In the last 20 years, where women work, how women work, and
what kinds of jobs women are seeking have changed. As more
and more corporations have re-organized and downsized, as
more children of Baby Boomer mothers are leaving home, and
as more traditionally employed women are waking up to the
fact that they want more out of life than just simply
getting a paycheck, the world of small business ownership
is exploding.

As a whole, the United States is becoming more
entrepreneurial. More than 1/3 of all people involved in
entrepreneurial activity are women. According to an April
2005 report by the U. S. Small Business Administration,
Office of Advocacy and Business Times, there are an
estimated 10 million privately held businesses in the
United States that are owned by women.

More people own small businesses in the United States than
ever before. According to the U. S. Small Business
Administration's report dated June, 2006, it is estimated
that there are 25.8 million small businesses (including
self-employed and sole proprietors) in the United States.
According to the same report, over the last decade small
businesses have generated 60 to 80 percent of new jobs, and
they employ 50.6 percent of the country's private sector
workforce.

In addition to starting new businesses, there are also an
increasing number of entrepreneurial Americans who are
buying existing small businesses, instead of starting their
own. According to a report by Wachovia, small business
acquisitions are growing in popularity. On any given day in
the United States, 1.7 million businesses are for sale.

Why Women are Starting Businesses

Women are starting businesses for two main reasons:
lifestyle and money. Many run their businesses from home so
they can be there for their children, instead of being
dependent on daycare and other non-family support care.

Other mid-Baby Boomer women (those in their 40s) have
achieved a level of success in the traditional workplace
and are striking out on their own, eager to call their own
shots and take charge of their financial futures.

Older Baby Boomer women are retiring early to start new
businesses. According to AARP, entrepreneurship is growing
in those 50 years and older. In addition, they predict that
people who take early retirement or whose jobs just
disappear will drive solo business formation in the future.

Two Greatest Challenges to Women

The greatest challenges for women starting up businesses
are access to capital and general lack of know-how.
However, these challenges are not stopping women from
starting up. Today, women have the same access to money as
men do. In fact, many start-up fund sources are
specifically targeting women through grants and new venture
capital. Women can be as creative in their approach to
money as they want to be, making use of incubators,
partnerships, or more traditional methods of funding such
as home equity lines of credit, angel funding, or
commercial loans.

Women are also realizing that, just because they don't have
a business degree, it doesn't mean they won't be successful
at running a business. Accounting needs can be outsourced.
Teleseminars can be taken. Books can be read. Questions can
be asked. Experience can be gained. Women know that they
don't have to do it all by themselves!

In addition, women are finding that their life and work
experiences count for something when starting up a
business. They recognize the treasure-trove of applicable,
relevant experience that they have amassed over the years
and are tapping into these storehouses for their start-ups.
Moreover, they know that whatever they don't have right
now, they can learn as they go.

If you are a woman considering small business ownership,
this is a perfect time for you. Don't let lack of money or
expertise stand in your way. Have confidence in your
valuable life experience, and draw from it when starting
your business. Then get creative about funding. Never
before have banks and other creative lending sources been
more supportive of women-owned small business start-ups.

----------------------------------------------------
Susan L Reid, DMA, Small Business Start Up Coach &
Consultant has her first book coming out in October:
Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's
Journey to Business Success. She provides value,
inspiration and direction for entrepreneurial women
starting up and launching small businesses. For your free
e-Zine full of ideas and start up tips, visit
http://SuccessfulSmallBizOwners.com .

Catalogue & Home Shopping: A Great Idea Just Got Better.

Ever had a great idea?

Of course you have. Can anyone have a great idea? Of course
they can. Can those ideas be profitable? Clearly this is
also possible, although profitable ideas rely on many
factors before they earn that title. Profitable ideas that
turn into successful businesses however, depend on many
contributing factors such as great products, great quality,
great prices, great timing and ultimately, old fashioned
good luck. But without doubt, the number one contributing
factor in turning a great idea into a profitable idea is:
Customers.

Without customers you have no business, it's that simple

Don't be fooled though, because even businesses with
customers aren't guaranteed profit or success. So, taking
this idea a step further, a successful business requires
happy, satisfied, and for continued success, repeat
customers. The key is satisfied customers. As the song
goes, "you've got to keep the customers satisfied"

Any company that doesn't keep its customers satisfied is
going to struggle, and this fact has never been more
relevant than in online or internet retailing.

Retail businesses of yesteryear have the same demands
placed upon them today as they had when they were first
established, whether they're fifteen or fifty years old.
They still have to fend off competition, they have to stay
fresh, they have to predict exactly what the customer wants
or needs and they have stay on their toes in terms of
trends and fashions. Clearly this is always going to be a
tall order for any business and history is littered with
casualties to prove the rule.

In retailing terms, the long established Catalogue and Home
Shopping companies have been very well run operations, and
for many this still holds true today. The challenge for
these long established companies though, is in their
ability to adapt to the demands of a very different
retailing environment. Today's customers still have the
same demands, but they now have a huge choice laid out
before them.

In today's marketplace, a great idea can be turned into a
very profitable business in a matter of weeks thanks to the
internet. A very astute retailer can establish an online
presence and customer awareness in a matter of months,
where the same presence and awareness would once have taken
years prior to the existence of the internet.

The ace up the sleeve for Catalogue and Home Shopping
retailers is that they already have infrastructures in
place to support their businesses. They already have
impressive purchasing power as well as warehousing and
delivery networks and they already have attractive credit
facilities. These are huge costs to absorb if you don't
have them, but great assets if they exist.

Sure, Catalogue and Home Shopping companies may have
arrived a little late on the online scene and maybe they
don't have the glamour or buzz that surrounds some of the
really big internet only retailers, but make no mistake,
the really switched on Catalogue and Home Shopping
retailers who do establish a credible online presence can
look forward to unparalleled growth. They simply need to
build on their hard earned strengths.

Highlighting the challenges for Catalogue and Home Shopping
companies is all well and good, and I'm sure they're aware
of the challenges themselves, but what does it all mean to
you and me?

Well for one thing, the internet has given long established
retailers a well deserved kick up the backside. They now
have to come up with bright ideas at a pace that they never
thought possible. They now have to innovate at the same
pace or faster as their internet only counterparts. In
short they have to re-invent and re-present themselves to a
whole new online audience to stay in the game.

As a customer, I want to see as much competition as
possible both online and off, because competition will
undoubtedly result in brighter ideas, greater innovation,
better offers, more choice and better service. As great
ideas go, the internet is a tough one to beat. Long live
the great idea.

As always, Happy shopping.

----------------------------------------------------
Sam Benton urges you to be among the first to take
advantage of some of the best offers, the best brands, from
the most respected and innovative names in Catalogue and
Home Shopping. For up to 20% off first orders and our
pre-sale notification promise, Click here ==>
http://www.the-catalogue-site.co.uk

Avoid mistakes when outsourcing Sales and Telemarketing

Hiring a service provider to prospect for you or sell your
product or service can be a very effective solution.
However, you can also waste valuable time, money, and have
the reputation of your company tarnished very quickly.
There are a few good, professional, and legitimate service
providers with solid business models and there are those
that do not. Be very careful. The purpose of this article
is to educate you and help you develop an understanding of
what to expect in the outsourced Sales and Telemarketing
industry in order to make a wise decision.

Beware of 100% pay for performance arrangements. Don't give
in to the NO RISK temptation. When providers are
compensated for quantity instead of quality, you can
imagine what happens - the quality of each lead drops, as
quantities rise - and your in-house sales team has to work
twice as hard to weed out the "garbage leads". These type
of arrangements fail the majority of the time due to
constant turnover, recruiting, poor management,
re-training, and re-ramping. No real momentum or business
continuity is ever established. Finally and most
importantly, your companies reputation will be adversely
effected due to the lack of professionalism.

Realistic Expectations. Many sub par providers of this
service will tell you just about anything you need to hear
to make the sale. They make a living turning over clients
with cheap rates and small tests. Why? Because they gain
more sales. Your provider should want to know your business
in detail and listen to your objectives. An honest provider
will tell you what is realistic within a certain amount of
hours. There are many variables, so its not feasible for
any provider to tell you exactly what to expect. However,
they should give you a realistic depiction of ramp times
and potential production. They should come up with a
customized strategy recommendation for success. A good
provider should be focused on how to maintain a long term
partnership.

Training prior to starting the program. - Good providers
will want you to be directly involved with the training.
After all it is your business and you know it best.
Preparation is key to success. A good provider should be
able to take your marketing collateral and create an
initial calling script for training and ramping. Talented
callers will not read a script word for word. The script
should be nothing more than a training tool and reference
until they have it down.

Caller Talent. - How do you want your company represented?
Avoid hiring providers that use high school, college,
inexperienced or off offshore callers. While young people
may be good for business to consumer programs, A good B2B
company will have mature, experienced professionals
representing your company.

Be aware of your service provider's quality control system.
The last thing you want is for your existing customers -
your revenue generating customers - to have a bad
impression of your company because of relaxed quality
standards. Good providers have a professional management
staff with a solid infrastructure. Consistent feedback and
communication between management, callers, and client is
crucial for mutual success. What types of reporting and
database access does the provider offer? Is it online and
fully accessible to you?

Look for professional communication and management. A
business development company should be giving you regular
updates, and have data available to you on demand - not
having this could be a warning sign that the data isn't
there at all. Consistent feedback and communication between
management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual
success. Does the provider offer you the ability to be
involved in the program and speak directly with the callers?

Beware of companies offering short tests (less than 50
hours). The profitability & success of a campaign cannot be
judged in such a short period of time. If you choose a
provider based on the results of such a short test, you may
end up getting "short changed" in the long run. This is
equivalent to you hiring an internal person for just over
one weeks worth of work. Pipelines take time develop.
Anything less than 50 hours and you are probably just
wasting your money.

Find out the exact location of the agents working for your
service provider. Offshore agents aren't usually held to
the highest quality standards, and the communication
barriers they create can reduce the effectiveness of your
campaign - actually costing you money in the long run.
While costs may be appealing, quality will most likely lack
severely and cost you more money and the reputation of your
company.

Avoid companies who charge less than $25/hour for their
services. All companies have to profit somewhere, and if
they don't charge enough for their services, you can be
sure they will cut back in other areas - such as employee
quality and training, equipment, and consultation time. You
can see how important it is to not only know what you're
outsourcing, but exactly who you're outsourcing it to.

Lists and dials per hour. Good providers will be educated
on the best list resources for your particular program.
They can typically provide you with or assist you in
procuring the nest list. Don't make the mistake of thinking
the more dials per hour, the better. That is a big
misnomer! EX> Lets suppose you are selling a sophisticated
software application and need a company to properly qualify
the prospects for you. If a provider tells you they can
make 30 dials an hour on average, that's 2 minutes per
call! How is it possible to effectively have a quality
conversation with a prospect in 2 minutes? Its not. These
are usually "telemarketing agencies" that use predictive
dialers. Essentially they are just burning through your
valuable lists of contacts and letting Quality slip by the
wayside. A professional organization is focused on the
quality of the lead or sale. Therefore they should be able
to give you a realistic idea of the average dials per hour
for your specific program.

Brick and Mortar or Remote provider.

Cost – Brick and Mortar companies have a much higher
overhead. In order to be competitive, they have to reduce
costs internally. Often this means paying a smaller wage to
their callers. Talent level is impacted. Remote model
providers are usually more price competitive over Brick and
Mortar companies.

Labor pool – Brick and Mortar companies are limited by an
average of a 30 mile radius of their location. Once that
pool is tapped out, the company has limited expansion
ability.

Calling Talent - Ability to attract top talented
professionals is crucial for success. Most experienced
professionals between 30-60 years old does not have any
interest in commuting to a call center and sitting a
cubicle all day.

Flexibility – Ability to market in specific geographical
regions of the country where the accent/dialect may be
different. Remote model providers have the ability to
designate talented calling agents who reside in the regions
where you need to have call on, thereby allowing calling
agents to build rapport more effectively.

Scalability – Fixed brick and mortar providers have limited
real estate for expansion. A remote model allows for
efficient scalability in the event you need callers added
quickly to ramp up your program.

Focus – Brick and Mortar call centers utilize close quarter
cubicles. Employees talk to each other and can be very
distracted between calls resulting in less focus on the
task at hand. Remote callers work in a quiet professional
home office by themselves and are very focused on results
without distractions.

Noise levels – Call centers are very loud. This is very
distracting to the prospect on the other end of the phone.
Additionally it sounds unprofessional, especially in the
B2B marketplace. Remote agents engage in dialogue with
prospects without the background noise.

Labor turnover – Brick and Mortar call centers experience
very high levels of employee turnover. Remote agents have a
high level of job satisfaction due the lack of commute and
peaceful environment. This equates to higher energy levels
and results for our clients.

Green and environmentally friendly - Remote model providers
keep cars off the roads.

----------------------------------------------------
Brian Augustus Parnell has extensive Sales, Sales
Management, and Marketing experience. He is considered an
expert in the area of Business Development. Brian founded
Grindstone Inc. in 2003. see http://www.grindstone.com .

Accomplish 20 Times More by Eliminating Harmful Traditions and Establishing Helpful Ones

You are already very busy. How can you accomplish more? A
good place to begin is to stop doing what tradition
dictates you must do that makes your performance less
effective

If you already know what harmful traditions you and your
organization are following that keep you from accomplishing
20 times more, you can focus on eliminating them.

STALL ERASERS

Many people find it hard to challenge their old ways of
doing business, especially when stalled by tradition. Here
are some examples of how leaders have been able to erase
harmful traditions:

• Pretend to be a new management team that has been asked
to turn around the problems brought about by the prior
management's complacency.

• Take the least productive tasks you do now and delegate
them to someone else who will do them well and appreciate
the opportunity. Encourage that person to delegate her or
his least productive tasks in the same way. And so on.

• If the methods you've been using don't work, begin
controlled experiments to test all other ways even ways
that call for reversing your direction.

• Turn the best performer's approach into a simple process
that those with no experience can duplicate through
automated promptings.

• Make it easy and quick for customers to solve the
problems they encounter. Assume customers will behave
honestly if that can help speed up and ease problems.
They'll reward you with continual word-of-mouth praise and
increased loyalty.

STALLBUSTERS

Identify Your Organization's Traditions and Their Original
Purposes

Most traditions start with a purpose, but others start by
accident. Before changing something, you should find out if
the tradition still serves some useful purpose by asking
the following questions:

• What traditions does the organization have that slow down
or increase the cost of accomplishing important results?

• What benefits do these traditions provide?

• What values were intended to be served by the traditions?

• What problems are created by the traditions?

IDENTIFY EMPOWERING TRADITIONS THAT WOULD BOOST PERFORMANCE

Traditions are powerful management tools for reinforcing
good habits. People are more willing to abandon their own
traditions when they learn that another organization's
different traditions have led to high performance.

• What traditions do other organizations have that speed up
improvements, enhance the results, and effectively reduce
costs?

• Which of these traditions are consistent with your
organization's values?

• How could the traditions be made more consistent with and
supportive of your organization's values?

• Which aspects of these traditions are exciting and fun
for people in your organization?

ESTABLISH NEW OR AMENDED TRADITIONS

What aspects of your organization do you want to have
operating on automatic pilot for all employees? One of the
best examples of automatic response is a tradition at
Ritz-Carlton hotels. Whenever an employee notices or is
told by a guest about a problem, he or she has the
responsibility to fix the problem immediately. That
tradition ensures that guests receive quick, courteous
solutions while feeling encouraged to bring problems to the
staff's attention. Higher guest satisfaction and loyalty
follow from that tradition.

To create or change traditions in your organization, ask
the following questions:

• What are the three most useful traditions your
organization could have?

• How can the new traditions be established so that
everyone will be delighted?

• How can you combine elements of existing traditions with
useful elements of these new traditions?

• What has been the best way that your organization has
previously launched traditions?

***************************************

With your new, helpful traditions replacing the harmful
ones you have now, you will soon have much more time and
energy to focus on creating ways to achieve 20 times more
with the same time, effort, and resources.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. Free advice on accomplishing 20 times
more is available to you by registering at
=====>

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .