My Weblog

The Company You Keep

I recently sat down to lunch with some budding entrepreneurs.  They  were a very bright bunch, well educated, informed, and personable.  Somewhere along the  line we got into a  conversation about the purpose of networking.  What's its use and how is it properly used.  So I wanted to take the time to express some personal thoughts on why networking is so important. 

First, when I use the word Network I mean a system of interrelated beings providing mutual assistance.  This takes many forms in our lives.  Churches are a network of Christ followers who come together for support, teaching, and accountability.  Telephone agencies are groups of people who have a common interest in that particular telephone provider.  A chamber of Commerce is a network of local business owners.  I could go on and on but  I think you get the point. 

So as it pertains to business what is a network's purpose.  Well, depending on what you want out of life your personal network should contain a group of people who can help one another create a win/win in business through exchanging, products, ideas, or advice.  The quality of this group is a reflection of you and your ability to climb the ladder of personal success.  A group that cares about the latest soaps probably won't help you make a million bux. 

Many people think the network is like a marketplace and this is actually dead wrong.  The purpose of the network is to have a pool of wise counsel and help.  It's a group of inter-related professionals who's goals at some point match up with yours.  Its quality and focused diversity can certainly help you reach your goals but it's simply a people pool, nothing more.  The rest of your personal success will come from how well you follow the other personal principles and habits which rule your life.

Mikhail

the HIL group

Why Can't I Make a Decision?

Decisions! Decisions, decisions, decisions! People are afraid to do it, and leaders are afraid to make the wrong types of it. How does that work? I recently heard a Pastor make a passing statement about people today and the way they make decisions. It was a very powerful and simple statement. As I Christian I trust that I have what it takes through God to make both right decisions and make decisions right.

 

In other words I have faith that through my faith and belief system I can either make smart decisions or trust in my ability to fix an incorrect decision so that it can be for everyone’s benefit. What about the person who doesn’t believe in God? I’m sure some of you reading this may not. How then do you make smart decisions and better still how do you fix the bad ones. 

 

Here is an observation and 2 tips to help you figure this out. 

 

Observation 1

The average person is afraid to make a decision. How do I know? Think about what you do when a salesman comes knocking at your door whether it’s for the latest Insurance Policy or Kirby (not sure you spell it) vacuum. The husband looks at the wife and the wife fidgets before she looks back at the husband. The other outcome is that the wife looks at the husband who stutters and thinks before he says “I don’t know.” You then provide an excuse that is most likely false. Such as “I have plenty of vacuums,” or “I’ll think about it.”

 

Tip 1

If you suffer from this common fear of making a bad choice then you must first decide not to be average. Average people don’t know how to commit, so learn to commit and trust yourself to do what’s best given all the available information.

 

Tip 2

If others are involved get their feedback quickly and efficiently. The longer your wait to make a decision the more likely you are not to make one. If you make a habit of gathering information as quickly as possible you will make a habit of committing to a choice.

 

Scary as it seems, it’s actually not the worse thing in the world. So learn to do it and learn to do it well. Happy hunting.

 

Mikhail
www.thehilgroup.com

 

India's B-Schools

I read in Businessweek a while ago about the trouble many Indian institutions are having in keeping up with how many students are getting an MBA.  Consider this, there are more than 1600 Institutions offering undergraduate Business Programs and MBA's.  Many Indian students are doing their best to take advantage of explosive economic growth in their home country by getting a higher level degree.  In the United States alone most MBA programs are seeing double-digit increases in the amount of Indian Students who apply for their programs.

With the large growth of forward looking students trying to take advantage of a hot growth period I wonder how many professors are actually equipped to be teaching this next generation of businesspeople to be leaders in the Indian Market.  I recently wrote an article about the various types of authors that we learn from who have either have very bad experience, no experience, or excellent experience in the marketplace.  Obviously the biggest danger is in having a negative person influence what we put in our minds.

Of the other two forms of teachers however, I am worried that too many teachers will come from the "no experience" category giving this country a high number of theoretically intelligent people who have little concept of how to actively work in the field.  Strong decisions making and problem solving skills are important.  A person who has no experience and personal insights should play a very limited roll in how much influence they have over future leaders.  What do the masses think?

What makes a Good Seller?

In most businesses the products are basically the same. If you are a broker then most of your competition will have access to the same types of discounts that you do. It’s very rare that a salesman’s relationships with their wholesalers are so good they can get an additional break. Usually if it's that good they are spending more time in the field instead of reading my blog. The industries that come to mind most often are stock brokers, insurance agents, and mortgage brokers. The same can be true for

MLM

where everyone thinks/knows/believes their products are “special.”  Very rarely will there be an enormous difference from what you are selling as compared to someone else.

The truth is, whether our products are relatively the same or not, in a buyers eyes they are.  This gives the prospective salesman two choices. 

The first is to go right into your pitch using every form of jargon possible under the Earth.  This will have your prospects quickly running for the hills just to be "unique."  Leaving you hurt, confused, or both

The second is to be a smart communicator and if appropriate close the deal.

So then how do you get the sale?  A buyer has a problem and you, the professional, have a potential solution to the problem.  People who normally get the account (or the sale) for prospective clients are people who listen closely to their prospects needs, wants, and don’t wants, are credible and experienced, and have our best interest at hand instead of theirs.  Anyone able to tie these together typically gets my business.  Unfortunately that leaves a very short list of people today who can meet these requirements.

But just think, what if everyone thought this way?  We would then have fewer unethical, unskilled salespeople running all over the place.  Everyone wants the big bucks, rarely to they want the hard work that goes with it.

Mikhail
the HIL group

 

Remember your School Fund raisers

Remember your school fund raisers?  The ones where you would sell cookie dough or frozen baked goods.  I was recently writing an article that talked about my ten year old selling experience and realized how poor of a job many sales types do in presenting their product or service to clients.  Here is how I see it, at age ten I would walk up and down my block talking to all my neighbors, and their neighbors, and their neighbors neighbors, and their friends. 

I would say "Hi, how are you?"  If they didn't know me I would give my name and then I would tell them in 3 sentences or less what I was doing.   I never did any sales training, didn't have a workshop to help me stumble all over myself and make my job harder.   I simply gave accurate information up front and asked if they would like to see what I had to offer.  Those who were interested would take a look, some would buy, and a few would tell some of their friends, their friends would buy, the process would keep going, and I would walk away.  At the end of the month my "income" if you could call it that was a direct reflection of how many homes I spoke with.  There was little thought behind the process and very little advanced skill.

I say that to ask this question.  Why is it that many sales types today go through and learn the latest on posturing, closing, opening, opening and closing, opening and closing while posturing when it has very little affect on results?  Some would argue that they do, but are any of the above a reason that people buy from us?  Why don't we focus on being excellent at communicating with people so that everything is natural and we can simply build trust, answer questions, and help prospects come to a decision?  I decided the reason for this isn't because it doesn't work but because it's too simple.  But that's just my opinion.  What do you think?

Mikhail

the HIL group

The State of Traveling Today

For those of you who do not travel very often you may or may not be aware that the airlines are now charging you for a second bag.  Depending on the airline you travel most frequently the price can vary anywhere from $3/pound to $25/bag.  As I have recently been spending more time around the State College area it was a pleasant surprise to me when I flew down to Florida a few days ago that I would be spending an extra $25 for a second bag on US Air. 

Consider this, after flying about 50,000 miles on this airline in the past 2 to 3 years it would be safe to say that I send them considerable business. There was very little advanced notice sent to me by email at the time that they began to charge and very little notice at the airport.  I'm sure if I had taken a look at the confirmation email I may have seen something (to be fair).  But as it stands here is the interesting thing to note.  After emailing customer service about this and another related issue I was told this is being done to save me, the consumer, money. 

I took 3 minutes  to pull up a flight from around the same time last year to the same destination and found very little difference in the price.  With that being said it was a very clever way to raise prices and charge you for what used to be norm (the now additional second bag).  For a person who normally travels with one bag this doesn't change much but for many people who use two they now have to spend extra and must reconsider the cost of using an airline and what to bring. 

Considering the state of the Airline industry today I wonder if clearly communicating the reason for the hike would have been a better way to go.  In business is it worth the loss of a customer and their circle of influence to come up with a "your call is important" to us statement if their actions show the opposite?  Are you doing that in your own organization or marketing?  What would be the price of having simple, honest, clearly communicated statements that finds the correct people.  A thinking customer will likely find out sooner or later and their nonthinking friends would soon follow.  So what do you think, is honestly the best policy?

Mikhail

the HIL group

We get what we teach

I had an mlm'er contact me from a company that will remain random.  Not a bad guy but still lot's to learn.  He wasn't very good at handling my aggressive nature as I was in control of the call in less than 2 minutes.  I took a bit of pitty on him and decided to give him a 10 minute coaching session to which he replied "I have scripts for this."  I realized the industry in the 9 months since I last worked with anyone hasn't changed much. 

It amazes me that we expect people who are clearly under practiced and timid on the phone to have any kind of success.  TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING.  Please for the good of all of your sales types in any industry learn to communicate, internalize your scripts, and make it a part of your natural vocabulary.  Finally, don't try to be interesting and shove your product down anyone's throat, be interested, find out what this person needs/wants and if/how your product can help them.  All products are not for all people and in an aggressive marketplace wisdom in a small market will grow your income and sanity more than going after anything that breathes.  Good luck to my young friend, he will surely need it if he doesn't practice being professional and up his ability to match assertiveness, seek first to understand, and internalize what he's doing.

www.thehilgroup.com

Working with Friends

This from a popular blog that I subscribe to about organizational hiring habits.

(http://blogs.bnet.com/teamwork/?p=247&tag=nl.e713)

"If you’re trying to change your corporate culture, bolster diversity, or bring in new skills or talents, it’s harder to do if you’re hiring clones of your current workforce.

And as we all know, some referrals have more to do with nepotism or friendship than with professional criteria — e.g., “John’s a great guy, lots of fun!” rather than “John has excellent project-management skills.”

So although employee referrals are the top external source of hire, don’t forget to keep casting your talent net wide enough to catch a few nonconforming fish. Your team and your organization will both benefit."

One thing I ask a lot in leadership is whether or not such referrals are a good thing or not.  Assuming I might want to change the corporate culture I might agree that one should perhaps begin by looking outside of your employees circle of influence for new talent.  With that said, why not bring your friends on board?  What do you think?  Is your circle of influence the type of people who can get things done and be a positive reflection of you or should you tell your boss to look elsewhere?

Mikhail

http://www.thehilgroup.com/

The Price of Success

Recently on one of the forums I belonged to I gave the advice to someone that they should find something they love doing and focus on it. A well meaning poster said to me “life isn’t that simple.” He then went off to list all the people who have gone off and failed or done poorly in life because of advice like. He then went on to explain what he had to learn in order to be good at his current profession. I thought he made a good point here but noticed that he was more or less agreeing with my statement but couldn’t quiet “see it.”

So is it really that simple? Find something you love and go for it? Yes. Is it easy? No. You see even the best athletes have to sacrifice “fun” time to work on their skills. Consider this, as a college athlete I woke up at 6am for weight training. I would have a conditioning session at 12 PM or 6PM depending on the day. I would have practice at 4 or 6 depending on the day. I would be in bed most nights before 11:30. Freshman year I had to spend extra time working on some of the skills that were hurting my game. Weekends of away games I was on the road until late Saturday or early Sunday afternoon. If there were no games that weekend we had 8 am conditioning to ensure we weren’t out partying. Over the summer I would sit down and watch film, not the most fun thing to do but it helped my growth going into the up and coming season. All this to get some game time and create a winning team.

On the surface there is nothing complex about what I did. But it wasn’t easy. I had to have the discipline to get my schoolwork done, to spend the extra time improving my skills, to monitor my food intake, I think you get the point. Nothing that took advanced levels on knowledge but something that took an incredible amount of discipline and commitment.

The same can be true in everything we do. To be the best you must learn to see the entire picture. You have to turn over the ugly “stuff” that is stopping you and learn to deal with them. Conflict is inevitable, hard times are inevitable, the key is to find ways of improving and getting better so that you will continue to have success. I would suggest finding 2 or 3 people who have done what you hope to do. Evaluate everything they have done. If you have the chance, go and interview them. You will find this to be particularly helpful and it will also give you a clear idea of what to realistically expect.

Too often people are given the incorrect expectation that winning is easy. That all you have to do is…..(fill in the blank). Just think to yourself, if it were that easy then wouldn’t every one be doing it? There is no cheap way to success. It takes a significant investment of our time and energy.

To your success, Mikhail http://www.thehilgroup.com/

Why people never get what they want

As quoted from a book I read recently called The Millionaire Next Door, “Most of us want to be wealthy, but most of us do not spend the time, energy, and money required to enhance our chances of realizing this goal (94)” I can say this is true for more than just wealth. Most of us want ______ (Insert your needs, wants, and desires here) but we do not spend the time, energy, and money required to get there.

If not here then where do most of us spend our time? For some it may be that we spend most of our time watching television in which case how much is your television costing you? For others it may be that we are “just too tired” to allocate the needed time to get what we want out of life and instead of raising our hand and taking responsibility we blame it on other things. My personal favorite is that some of us just get sucked into doing nothing. It’s really easy to do and really hard to get out of. And finally, some of us just spend a lot of time getting ready to get ready or simply doing the wrong things to get there (this was one that I was a little….ok a lot guilty of on my path towards success).

I have been working with people for many years and I’m sure I’ve heard it all. Everything from “I had a relative die” (it’s amazing how many relatives can die in six months by the way) to “I don’t know what happened, my phone/computer/brain just stopped working.” If it sounds very harsh it’s because it is, but it’s also very true. The simple fact is that most people just don’t have what it takes to get where they want and they are unwilling to develop the skills they need to get there. No one said it would ever be easy but that’s why so few actually realize the goals that they have out of their lives.

Look at it this way: Most people finish High School but not all. A majority of people finish college but not all. Many people enter Grad School, most of them never finish. I could go on and on but I don’t spend too much time on this phenomena. Life and I have come to the agreement that there are many reasons for it but the plain reality is that life is a tough and nasty game. It can be very unfair and its no respecter of persons.

So how do you avoid this pitfall in your own life? I would suggest writing down what you REALLY care about and what you REALLY want out of life. This will ensure that when things are tough that you stay have a higher chance of staying committed. Then find a way to devote a part of your life/time to this endeavor, start small so as not to get overwhelmed and learn how to get better in that area. As your skills grow and as you create a lifestyle of consistent action you will find your become more and more capable of handling the harder parts of your projects and before you know it you will have realized that goal, whatever it is.

So get off your couch....No really why are you still reading this get going :)

http://www.thehilgroup.com/