BUSINESS FOR VETERANS By Barbara Eldridge www.mindmasters.com
Practice, Practice, Practice
It Keeps You Sharp To maintain and grow a business, ongoing relationships with clients/customers requires consistent processes that deliver value and meaningful actions. If you are not working at strengthening those relationships, you are making it easier for your competitors to insert themselves into your marketplace. Every activity in your business needs to be consistent. Athletes do it, musicians do it, mechanics do it, writers do it, do you the business owner, do it? The idea that we can become proficient (well advanced in an art, occupation, or branch of knowledge) in our chosen field is often overlooked in small business. As solo-preneurs there is little time to spend practicing, when you wear all the hats - bookkeeper, marketer, sales rep, manager, and producer. Practice is a learning method, a method done by repetition; when you perform or work repeatedly at something, it is so you become proficient. If you have ever observed the activities of a young child, you know that their learning process is based on the principle of spaced repetition. They learn new words, begin to grasp their meaning, use the words whenever they can, until the words become a part of their vocabulary. Spaced repetition is one of the most effective forms of learning. There is a professional basketball player on U-Tube who questions whether practicing has anything to do with playing the game. Hopefully you agree, he might not have been in professional ball if he hadn’t “practiced, practiced, practiced” his game. So as business owners what should we be practicing? Asking questions: Take the time to create a list of relevant and meaningful questions. Having a list of insightful questions will serve you well time and time again. Your questions will support you in your quest to differentiate yourself and establish credibility and trust. They will open up new opportunities. 44
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Listening: Perhaps your most important skill; learning what a person’s needs and wants are, help to reveal if you can truly work together. Sales Process: Every step along the sales path, from prospecting to closing the sale is an opportunity to tweak your technique. Once you find the right combination of words that bring the best results, you then practice them that over and over again. • Establishing rapport & trust • Identifying needs accurately • Your presentation • Answering objections effectively • Closing the sale, asking for the order • Getting re-sales and asking for referrals If you have ever been to the batting cages, or were made to practice the piano, or remember learning the multiplication tables, you know that practice is the foundation for any skill. What skill in your toolbox needs sharpening? If you haven’t checked yourself out lately you may be surprised that you are leaving something important out or have made a change that has caused you to be less effective. Take time to review each business encounter this week; ask yourself, what worked, what didn’t, how could you improve it, then
Practice, Practice, Practice! Barbara Eldridge has built a solid reputation as a Success strategies specialist, within industry and business over the past 40 years. Her unique message, since starting Mind Masters 30 years ago for entrepreneurs and small business owners, continually stresses vision, purpose and values as the key elements of business philosophy. www.mindmasters.com
