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Vision: What is the Ultimate Purpose of your Business?

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John Paul DeJoria is not your typical billionaire. He grew up with nothing. He was a member of a gang. He joined the navy. He bounced around from job to job. And he even lived in a car for some time.

“Rejection is part of being successful,” said DeJoria. “Successful people do all the things that unsuccessful people don’t want to do, like staying enthusiastic when you keep getting rejected.”

Through enthusiastic perseverance and through his experience in the hair industry (he was fired from 3 different jobs), DeJoria formed his own shampoo company after teaming up with Paul Mitchell. The two men didn’t have much money. In fact, they had just $700 to their names. What DeJoria and Mitchell did have was drive and a revolutionary product.

“Our shampoo you only had to use once instead of twice,” said DeJoria. “So for a hair dresser, it saves time and money.”

DeJoria and Mitchell made millions, becoming the largest, privately-held beauty company in the world. But that wasn’t enough. DeJoria went on to found Patron, which became even more successful than his line of Paul Mitchell products, making DeJoria a billionaire.

20/20 Billionaire Secrets Barbara Walters: John Paul DeJoria

“What do you think is the best part about being a billionaire?” asked Barbara Walters.

“I can make some major changes that affect the entire world – for economy, for ecology, and for humanity,” answered DeJoria. “I like to live well and I feel good about it because I know how much we give back. There is plenty for my family, now let’s take care of the rest.”

John Paul DeJoria Business Vision: Success unshared is failure!

What is your business vision? What is the ultimate purpose of your business? As we told you a few weeks ago, “people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Springboard’s Business Vision: To alter the perception of sales people so businesses can thrive, salespeople can be happier and their prospects can live in peace.

Maybe it is time to start thinking about why you do what you do!

If you have any questions about Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

The WHY of Success: WHY do some Business Succeed when others Fail?

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Why are some organizations more successful than others, despite being no more qualified than the competition?

Why are some leaders able to inspire when others are not, despite having no “special” attributes?

Why!?

Simon Sinek seeks to explain the WHY in his lecture, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action.


“The inspired leaders and the inspired organizations, regardless of their size, regardless of their industry, all think, act, and communicate from the inside out,” said Sinek. He further explained this theory using what he calls his Golden Circle.

 

What: Every organization and every leader knows what they do.

How: Some organizations and leaders know how they do what they do is better than the competition. For example: our computer is user friendly, our car gets great gas mileage, etc.

Why: Very few organizations and leaders know WHY they do what they do.

And no, profit is not a why. It is a result. The why is a purpose, a cause, or a belief. The why has to do with why your organization exists? You do not exist to turn a profit. If you do, your business might not be around very long.

Pursuing a result is a recipe for failure; it is what drives businesses into the ground. Pursuing a belief is what drives businesses to succeed, despite the odds. It is what drives prospects to you.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” said Sinek. “The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have; the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

The WHY of Sales

The why, the belief, is the reason a prospect buys your product or service. And everyone’s why is different. Because of this, there is no one size fits all sales solution. The key to sales success is to understand your prospects why and respect that belief throughout the entire buying process. This is how you foster long, happy client relationships.

“They know you ‘get’ them,” said Springboard CEO Karin Schwartz. “They trust you; they believe in you.”

If you have any questions about Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

The Candle Problem: Rethinking the Way we do Business

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What truly motivates your employees? How do you, as a business owner, foster a more efficient workplace to ultimately drive sales and increase profits? Well, traditional business practices would lead one to believe that extrinsic motivators, like monetary rewards, are the best way to motivate your employees. However, recent studies show that there may be a mismatch between how businesses “motivate” salespeople and what science knows to be effective.

This is the subject of speaker Daniel Pink’s speech, “The Surprising Science of Motivation.”

The Candle Problem: Participants are tasked to attach a candle to a wall in such a way so wax will not drip on the table below. To do this, the participant may use a book of matches and a box of thumbtacks.

Some participants try to use the tacks to fix the candle to the wall. It doesn’t work. Other try to melt part of the candle and stick it to the wall. That doesn’t work either.

The Solution: Empty the box of thumbtacks, put the candle into the box, use the thumbtacks to nail the box to the wall, and stick the candle in the box.

The message of the candle problem is simple and can easily be applied to the business community, especially motivation. We must stop looking at what we think we see…what we think we know about motivation and start looking for more creative and effective ways to encourage salespeople and ultimately bolster sales.

The fact is that traditional, extrinsic rewards aren’t always as effective as we think.

“I can’t tell you how many leaders I speak with that think their sales people are motivated by money, but most aren’t,” said Springboard CEO Karin Schwartz. “It’s rarely about money.”

In fact, according to Dr. Bernd Irlenbusch of the London School of Economics, “financial incentives…can result in a negative impact on overall performance.” Instead, Daniel Pink encourages the use of intrinsic business motivation, which work because of three key factors:

  • Autonomy: The urge to direct our own lives
  • Mastery: The desire to get better and better and something that matters
  • Purpose: The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

“It’s not uncommon to see sales people motivated by cultivating long term relationships, helping others, finding the missing puzzle piece, receiving the accolades/appreciation, etc.,” said Karin. “The faster a business owner realizes how their people are motivated the faster they can develop a culture that thrives.”

If you have any questions about Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

Generational Differences in the Workplace: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y

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While your office may seem quite peaceful, there is actually an underlying tension between the Baby Boomers (people born 1943-1960), Generation X (people born 1961-1981) and Generation Y (people born after 1982). This tension threatens to lower moral, increase turnover and hobble your business’ ability to grow.

Authors of Bridging the Generation Gap Linda Gravett and Robin Throckmorton’s research found the following:

  •  68% of Baby Boomers feel that “younger people” have poor work ethics, which in turn makes their work even harder.
  • 32% of Gen X-ers also feel that the “younger generation” has a poor work ethic.
  • Gen Y-ers, which have been called “the most high-maintenance, yet potentially most high-performing generation,” believe they have a good work ethic for which they are not given enough credit.
  • 13% of Gen Y-ers believe the difference in work ethics between generations causes friction in the workplace.

And what is one of the biggest differences between these generations that is a constant cause of workplace tension? Technology!

While Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers prefer phone communication and face-to-face business transactions, Generation Y-ers prefer to communicate via blogs, IMs, text messages and emails. Gen Y sees this type of communication as effective and efficient, while the older generation sees this as lazy and potentially harmful to business.

But this is just one of many examples we could have chosen. There are several causes of generational conflict in the workplace, putting increasing pressure on bosses, employers, and office managers who must recognize these ever-present tensions and then find a way to alleviate some of that tension. Each generation has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses and it is the managers’ jobs to identify those points and find ways to get the most out of their employees.

One key message employers and managers must drive into their employees is this: age defines a demographic, not a person. While people from any given generation may share certain similarities, they are individual people with their own individual set of strengths and weaknesses. Just as they say don’t judge a book by its cover, you shouldn’t judge a person by the generation they were born in.

After all, we are all the young, “misunderstood” generation at one point in our lives…

If you have any questions, contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. It’s simple, while you focus on delivery, we bring our sales expertise and connections to focus on your business development challenges.

Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the concerns of sales team turn-over, lack of sales expertise and payroll.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well!

Sources:

Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers: Workplace Generation Wars

Leadership Development Tips for 2012

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What is your New Year’s Resolution? Maybe you want to lose weight, travel more, or stop smoking. Or maybe you want to become a more efficient leader. After all, business development begins with you, the business owner. To grow as a business you must first grow as a leader.

There are lots of things you can do to better yourself as a business leader, but we don’t have enough time to explain them all so we have outlined our top suggestions.

Don’t Neglect the Present to Plan for the Future: Yes, the ultimate goal is to grow your business. But you cannot be so focused on future growth that you neglect the here and now. If you re-direct your focus on current business transactions and work to perfect what your business already does well, the rest will fall into place.

Listening: Listen to what your employees and clients are saying. After all, happy clients provide referrals, which brings in more business and makes you more money. This will make you a happy business owner. And happy employees will work harder and more efficiently, which brings in more business and makes you more money. This will also make you a happy business owner.

So stop talking at people and start listening to what they have to say.

Unlearning: Forget what you think you know about business…it is ever evolving. So stop relying on outdated methods and ineffective techniques. If you want your business to grow and prosper, you must first be willing to change your way of thinking. Just because something worked in the past does not mean it will continue working. Always be on the lookout for new sales techniques and more effective business practices.

Focus on What You do Best & Outsource the Rest: As a business owner, you are pulled in several different directions at once. You are forced to divide your attention between marketing, sales, business growth, customer service, and much more. And there is simply not enough time in the day to give each area of your business the time it deserves. As a result, your business suffers.

You cannot afford to do anything halfheartedly in the corporate world. So what is the solution? What is the best use of your time? Well, unfortunately there is no one answer. Every sector of your business is equally as important as the next.

However, one of the best ways to lessen your business burden is to outsource your sales to a professional business development firm, like Springboard!

Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. It’s simple, while you focus on delivery, we bring our sales expertise and connections to focus on your business development challenges.

If you have any questions, contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the concerns of sales team turn-over, lack of sales expertise and payroll.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well!

Sources:

5 Leadership Tips for 2012

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