Thoughts from the Experts

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The best way to predict the future is to create it! Strategic Planning is a process that determines the future of the organization and the organizational resources that will be needed to ensure that success.

The process helps determine business opportunities and resources that are required to convert opportunity into success.

Business owners and leaders today have found that developing a strategy and an implementation plan is far more effective than leaving the future to chance. 

Furthermore, developing a strategy, a vision, a mission, and a specific plan of action contributes to long-term, sustainable success. If implemented correctly, it will create higher levels of motivation and commitment and fuel continuously higher levels of achievement from everyone within the organization.

Steps for Planning an Effective Process

• Basic Foundation
• Business Philosophy
• Vision Statement
• Values and Principles
• Vision
• External Assessment
• Competitive and Trend Analysis
• Internal Appraisal
• S.L.O.T. Analysis
• Mission Statement
• Critical Goal Categories
• Organizational Goals
• Market and Sales Plan
• Implementation

The Results Are Measurable

• Increased Market Share
• Maximized Return on Your Intellectual Capital
• Increased Shareholder Earnings
• Strengthened Focus on Attracting, Servicing, and Keeping Customers
• Greater Employee Contributions to Results Realized
• Defined Strategic Direction
• Corporate Values Developed and Sustained
• Motivated Employees
• Guidelines for Delegation and Decision Making Provided
• Trends and Technologies Identified
• Sense of Purpose Created

Strategic Thinking is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is and what it does, with a focus on a predetermined future. 

Strategic Thinking is the process of determining and envisioning the future to which you aspire and the growth you will have to realize to achieve that future state. It is a management tool which will help an

organization do a better job of focusing the energy of its employees, and ensuring that they are all working toward the same goals. It is also a tool used to assess and clarify the organization’s direction and response to changing environments.

As an entrepreneur, you will need to concern yourself with visionary activities, planning, and leading people. As the leader for your business, people will look to you for direction. People will also look to you for coaching, leadership, guidance, support, decisions, and leadership stability. You now must decide what needs to be done to succeed, and then you must do it, and you must do it the right way.

Succeeding in business requires a vision combined with the passion and commitment to pursue that vision. It also requires a willingness to change, to learn, to become, and to take calculated risks… it requires entrepreneurial leadership.

Business owners and leaders today have found that developing a strategy and an implementation plan is far more effective than leaving the future to chance. Furthermore, developing a strategy, a

vision, a mission, and a specific plan of action contributes to long-term, sustainable success. If implemented correctly, it will create higher levels of motivation and commitment, and fuel continuously higher levels of achievement from everyone within the organization.

The Results Are Measurable

• Increased Revenue
• Strengthened Focus on Attracting, Servicing, and
• Keeping Customers
• Greater Employee Contributions to Results Realized
• Defined Strategic Direction
• Developed and Sustained Values
• Motivated Employees
• Measurable Growth
• Sustainable Results

Developing loyal Customers—not just satisfying your Customers’ needs—is the critical difference in creating sustainable

organizational success. Customer Loyalty should be the outcome of every Customer interaction, and creating unique points of

connection for every Customer should be the goal. Customer Loyalty is a powerful competitive advantage. The value of loyal

Customers includes: they always return, they brag about your organization providing word of mouth advertising, they are willing to pay more for your product or service, and when there is a mistake, loyal Customers are more forgiving.

Beyond Customer Service

Research tells us that the only way to create Customer Loyalty is through an emotional connection. Unfortunately, in many organizations the Customer has become a low priority. When people are not treated according to their expectations, they will take their business elsewhere. What’s more, they relay their bad experiences to 10 or more other people. The question then becomes not whether to improve your organization’s service standard, but how? Excellence in service pays off dramatically to the bottom line in every industry.

Effectively Managing Stress and Impulses

Most buying decisions are not based on need, but rather emotion. Outstanding Customer Service providers are always aware of their Customers’ emotions and they know how to respond appropriately. However, a continual barrage of emotional interactions can be a reality in service interactions. For this very reason, it is important that Customer Service providers understand and have the necessary tools to effectively reduce and manage stress. Customer Service providers need to know how to understand and manage emotions—their own, as well as, their Customers’.

Goal Accomplishment for Success

Many people set goals—sometimes. Not only is it important to set goals, it is necessary to develop a detailed plan to achieve each goal. However, setting goals as it relates to Customer Loyalty skills will help Customer Service providers focus on developing the necessary behaviors or changing existing behaviors that will make their professional lives more effective. Goal setting, like Customer Loyalty, is a state of mind. When setting goals they should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistically high, and contain target dates for accomplishment.

The field of sales has experienced some dramatic and far-reaching changes over recent years. Today’s sales professionals as well as today’s buyers are better educated,

more informed, and have more options than ever before.

These changes have created new, exciting, and challenging possibilities in every organization. Success requires innovative

ideas and finely developed skills. Whether you are selling a product or service, whether you represent a well-known, established company, or a new start up, one fact remains clear: it is unlikely that you will maintain a competitive advantage unless you discontinue doing things the way you have always done them. Success in the world of sales depends on your ability to reinvent yourself and your processes, and apply them for improved results consistent to your customers’ needs.

The Sales Development process offers a comprehensive, concise process that will help develop a skilled, successful sales professional. By uniting current sales skills with a personal development system, a sales professional will uncover a system that will lead to higher levels of achievement.

Critical Issues Covered Within this Process

• Why is Sales so Important?
• Preparing for Change
• Importance of Balance
• The Buying Process
• The Selling Process
• Attitude Drives Success
• Procurement Sales
• The Importance of Goals
• Communication Skills
• The Power of Questions
• The Steps of the Sale
• Understanding the Situation
• Clarifying Objectives
• Measurable Outcomes
• Getting Commitment
• Preventing and Handling Objections
• Preventing and Handling Stalls

The Results Are Measurable

• Increased Sales
• Strengthened Focus on Attracting,  Servicing, and Keeping Customers
• Increased Market Share
• More Repeat Business
• Increased Share of Wallet
• Competitive Business Converted
• Increased Income
• Higher Profits for You and Your Company
• Maximized Balance Between Business and Personal Life

Over the last several years, management has taken on many new and complex dimensions. Advancing technology, changing values, and increasing competition have created new and exciting possibilities for every organization. The challenge facing management today is

developing an organization that can achieve tomorrow’s goals while continuing to meet the daily challenges of today’s changing business environment. To balance these organizational and economic demands, managers need a systematic, results-oriented approach to organizing, managing, and motivating their people.

Today’s management requires the skills to manage people to a higher level of productivity and successful outcomes. Every company and organization is forced to accomplish more with less in this global

business environment. Effective managers are a key ingredient for increased profitability and growth for organizations.

The Process

The Management Development process is designed to help managers develop the skills needed to do more with less and be able to aggressively accomplish organizational and personal goals and objectives. As a result of this process, managers understand why and how they can be essential to achieving the organization’s goals. This process makes management development not only possible, but eminently profitable.

Critical Issues Covered Within this Process

• Manager as a Leader
• Criteria for Goal Setting
• Order of Values
• Solutions and Action Steps
• Confidence
• Attitude Motivation
• Transactional Analysis
• Active Listening
• Timing and Decisions
• Communication
• Making the Most of Your Time
• Subordinate Development
• Creating a Problem Solving Environment
• Managing Through Goal Setting
• Project Management

The Results Are Measurable

• Cohesive, Energized Teams
• Reduced Turnover
• Increased Market Share
• Improved Organizational Profits
• Developed and Sustained Corporate Values
• Professional Expectations Accomplished
• Increased Productivity
• Development of Positive Attitudes
• Visualization of Goals, Purpose, and Vision
• Highly Functioning and Performing Teams

In today’s business, the team leader is the main link between the organization’s goals and the people who are responsible for the daily activities that make those goals a reality. Because of the necessary and integral role that this position plays, it is obvious that good team leaders are key to the success of any organization. Many everyday decisions required within this role affect profits, productivity, service levels, as well as attitudes and morale. With a role and function of this magnitude, it would seem logical that the process of becoming a team leader would require years and years of training. However, most team leaders have had little or no training in the required skills. Almost universally, today’s team leaders are men and women who have been promoted from being a superworker to being a team leader.

A Process for Results

The Team Leadership process makes team leadership development not only possible, but also eminently profitable. Individually, each team leader reflects the proficiency of a specialized knowledge which creates a powerful force that assures the achievement of organizational goals through its people.

Essential Elements

Attitude Development:

Attitude is the basis of all individual behavior. The effectiveness of team leaders will depend upon their behavior in a given situation. Improved results and productivity begin by developing the attitudes that govern positive behavior.

Behavior Management Skills:

Better than 50% of a team leader’s time is spent managing other people. To be effective in this role, it is important that the individual develops the skills necessary to effectively communicate and maximize productivity.

Goal Accomplishment:

A team leader not only sets goals, but also needs to determine how they will be achieved, what obstacles must be overcome in the process, and the timeline necessary. The Team Leadership process provides a proven goal accomplishment model that can be immediately applied to any organization.

Critical Issues Covered Within this Process

• The Roles and Functions of a Successful Team Leader
• Organizational Goal Setting
• Developing Confidence
• Managing and Controlling Your Use of Time
• Creating and Managing Performance
• Creating an Environment for Growth
• Techniques for Better Training
• Conducting the Evaluation
• Taking Corrective Action
• The Disciplinary Interview
• Decisions, Habits, and Attitudes
• Making Quality Decisions

The Results Are Measurable

• Dynamic Teams
• Lowered Cost of Doing Business
• High Performing Individuals
• Motivation to Accomplish Organizational Goals
• Increased Revenues
• Increased Profitability