The Right Way Works! - jeff korhan

Get Real Sales by Blogging

I'm a sales and marketing expert, though my expertise in two specific areas seem to be merging to create a unique niche.  For nearly fifteen years I have worked with the Chopra Center for Well Being, becoming a Certified Meditation Instructor as a result of my incredible experience.  Lately, I'm teaching more as interest in meditation is on the rise, especially with business people. There are a few reasons for this, which include reducing stress, improving productivity, though the most common one is to connect with what we intuitively know as real - our true nature.  In fact, most of the stress we experience is due to the fact that our attention is scattered all over the planet!  Reconnecting through meditation grounds you and gives you great stability and strength to accomplish your goals.

What does this have to do with blogging?  If meditation helps to understand your true nature, then blogging is one of the best tools to get that unique and personal message of yours out to your market to then attract the right clients.  Last week I gave a presentation on blogging to very attentive members of the Illinois Chapter of the National Speakers Association.  We barely scratched the surface in the 90 minutes we had together, but several new blogs have been launched as a result of that meeting, including www.pureandsimplemarketing.com, by past president Al Lautenslager.  He kindly shared that "Everything I know about blogging I learned from Jeff Korhan."  Thanks Al!  My view is blogging is one of the best ways to connect with your clients - your audience if you are a professional speaker - because they get your real, unvarnished, and therefore, credible perspective.  In fact, web and SEO expert Kurt Scholle of Web Asylum recently informed me about a study in which the identical text was placed on a blog and a website, with the blog testing as far more credible, by something like 47%.  Interesting! This only supports my belief that blogs may well usurp some of the territory currently held by websites.  Either that or the lines between the two will become blurred as we merge the two technologies.

So how do you get more sales - GET REAL!  That's what I tell my clients.  We're living in a reality based society.  If there was ever a time to cut through the b.s., now is that time.  You'll feel better, your customers will appreciate your forthrightness, and best of all, you'll sell more of your products and services.

Blindfolded Cliff Diver Service - It Hurts!

I've heard it said that great customer service is sometimes invisible - you don't even notice it.  While this is occasionally true, it's not always the case.  For example, why do you go to your favorite restaurant?  It's probably because you like it.  Duh?  Well, why do you like it so well?  You know what to expect. 

Now, what happens when you go to a restaurant for the first time - maybe one where you have heard good reports from friends.  You have expectations, but they may not be clear.  So, what happens first?  The waiter or waitress approaches and there is a conversation?  But is it a meaningful one?   It's up to you as the customer to let those serving you know what you want.  Conversely, it's up to you as the service professional to clearly determine what the success criteria are.   If you are serving your customers and just guessing about their needs, then you deserve those issues that inevitably arise.

Serving your customers is a challenge predominantly because you are not clear about how to please them.  Let's face it, some customers play a game where they want you to figure it out - offering only fragments of information and then complaining when they don't get what they want.  In my business I've always found it's best to keep asking until you are perfectly clear.  Here's my simple formula -- 1. Ask what your customer wants from you in a way that has them imagine the perfect project, the perfect transaction - IN THE FUTURE.  Then, all you have to do is deliver that future.  Yes, you have to get them to say it.  Of course, this can be difficult because some folks really don't know what they want.  What can you do?  2. Keep asking!  3. If that doesn't work, give your professional opinion.  Whether they like it or not, it moves them one step closer to defining what they want so you can serve it up.   Would you dive off a cliff not knowing what's on the other side?  I thought so.  So stop practicing 'blindfolded cliff diver customer service.'  You know it's gonna hurt!

Can't Get No Balance at Work? - Measure It!

I was recently asked to write an article on work-life balance for Snow Business Magazine.  If you have any knowledge of the snow business, you know this is an unpredictable, high-intensity business.  It's a business where the best laid plans - well, they get buried under the relentless, ferocity of the next storm.  Yet, it is a highly profitable business if you can manage to keep your head, whether the storm is 'perfect' - or as Bob Dylan once said - 'outrageous!'

The snow business tends to attract those individuals who thrive on the adrenaline rush of doing battle with mother nature.  In some ways, it's like climbing a mountain.  If you are daring  - there just ain't no mountain high enough to keep you from your mission -- until you hit the wall from fatigue.  This fatigue reminds you that you are not in control of many things - your work, your free time, the needs of your family, and so much more.

How do you find balance between your work and personal life in any business?  The first step is knowing who you are and being sure you are doing what you love.  I'm reminded of The Rolling Stones tune Satisfaction.  You can get a lot of outside signals that .. 'tell you how white your shirts can be' (when you're) 'doing this and signing that' .... in short, you have to do the right work for you in a way that works for you and your family.  Only you know what is going to work in your individual situation - because these situations are as different as each one of us. 

Some of us love our work so much it can be a drug - it's an energizing rush!  But of course, any drug should  be taken in moderation.   You build up a tolerance to the drug until eventually the results just aren't there.  It's up to you to communicate your needs with everyone you work and play with to arrive at the best solution.  That's how you find balance - a balance that's different for each of us.  I suggest you write down what those things are and make sure you are mindful of them - even measuring them.  Measure how much time you devote to your children, your spouse, your health.. to whatever is important to you in achieving balance.  As they say in business, if you don't measure it, you are saying it's not important.   Most of us measure profits, but do we measure balance?      

When Something's Not Right its Wrong

It occurred to me today that when you work on fixing what is not rightfully your responsibility, you are doing the wrong thing.  Why?  Because your time and talent and energy should be focused on doing the right thing.  It reminded me of the verse from Bob Dylan's You're Gonna Make Lonesome When You Go - "when something is not right its wrong!"

So what's wrong?  It's wrong, for example, to expect others to clean up your mess.   While we can't possibly finish the job, we baby boomers have a responsibility to leave this planet in a better condition than it appears to be presently heading.  It would be wrong to expect our children to fix what's already broken.  We have to do the right thing for them.

This brings me to the genesis of my thought.  Today a customer asked me to fix a condition that pre-existed my company's work on a project.  I used to do this - and at no charge.  Why not, I reasoned, I'm already there and it's not worth debating.  This all saved me from confronting the reality that I was cleaning up someone else's mess in the name of "customer service."  It was a convenient lie I fed myself.  Unfortunately, I've come to realize this isn't how the universe works.  It only creates a low state of consciousness. It's not the proper resolution, unless you're in the charity business, which I'm not.  And even charities work for a specific purpose or reason.

When you take on responsibilities that aren't rightfully yours, you feel compromised.  You owe it to yourself, your company, and your customer to do the right thing.  When we all do this, responsibility and accountability all fall into the right places and then the whole system is lifted up because now we are all working for the right reasons - we're all being true to ourselves and not feeling that low state of making the wrong choice.  Right choices are grounded in the right reasons - which is why they deliver the right results!

Grow Your Business The Right Way

A few nights ago I was sitting in my screened porch enjoying the scents and sounds of the evening rain storm.  When I wandered inside to the pantry for a snack, I was struck with how many products today are labeled 'organic' - from chips to raisins to even wine and more!  I wondered if organic really means something or if it's the latest 'flavor' that is being marketed to us consumers. 

When I think of organic I think of things that happen naturally - almost without effort.  Organic growth, whether in nature - or in business, such as internet search engine optimization (SEO) - implies that organic is a better way because it's more sustainable in the long term.  I'm an educated consumer, so I know, for example, that wild salmon is better than salmon raised in farms where cholorinated products are used to control the undesirable growth of pathogens.  For some reason wild salmon doesn't even cost more.  At least that has been my experience.  I do know that organic SEO is cheaper and more effective than pay per click.  Organic is really taking a natural approach.  I suppose natural has connotations that don't work as well in commerce today and we need a descriptor that does.  Enter Organic.

What we are really after is results.  If you want to get the right results, you can achieve them in many ways.  But if your approach is the right one - the natural way - then you are most likely in harmony with what sustains that result.  This applies in nature as well as commerce.  Interesting, isn't it?  This takes me right back to my rainstorm.  You can't replicate that.  Something is lost when we don't follow the right or natural path for obtaining desired results.  I'm suggesting that organic is more about "the way" and less about the product."  If you want to acheive the right results in your business - sustainable sales, service and customers -  you need to think about "growing" your business organically - which simply means doing the right things in the right way.  Your value system will give you clues to the right way - then you just have to 'grow from what you know.'

Natural Productivity- Take a Stone off the Path

Last month I spoke to an organization on the topic of stress and change.  I was surprised at the range of responses I received in the evaluations.  Many of the audience members embraced my message, while others commented the discussion was too high level and didn't provide pragmatic solutions.  In other words, they believed I missed the mark.  After a weekend of discerning thought, I've come to realize they were all accurate representations. 

You see, our thoughts are colored by our past experiences, which shape our responses to circumstances and situations.  When we get comfortable with that, life becomes a lot less stressful.   We know what we know, yet we have to remind ourselves that what we don't know is likely the solution to our current situation.  So the solutions to our problems and desires are right here - right now - but they are disguised from us.  They are right within our reach if we can change our patterns of thinking - which is easier said than done.  Why should you change what helped you acquire the skills that now serve you?  These 'pathways to productivity' both serve us and blind us to future productivity.  Before long we discover there are obstacles - stones on the path that seem to get in the way of where we are going.

What's the solution?  Soak up life with eager anticipation and awareness.  Delight in everything that comes your way on your path, whether you see it as a gift or a curse - because in most cases it is both.  What seems like a gift today may hold you back in the future if you lean on it too much.  Our natural evolution as fully functioning human beings is to learn at every turn so that we can achieve our full potential.  When you take this approach you accept the highs and the lows as ripples in your natural path to becoming more productive and effective in whatever it is you value in this lifetime.  We are all 'wired' differently.  A step by step approach that bores the heck out of some of us that resist structure, may well be the magic formula that leads to breakthrough productity - naturally - for a co-worker that is looking for reliable path to follow. We are all right in our beliefs, especially when they naturally lead to positive results.  The key is to keep looking - make sure you are on the right path - and if you are, don't worry about a few stones that get in the way.  Toss them aside and keep moving forward!