#1 Question That Gets Overlooked

What is the #1 question that most often gets overlooked?

You will have to wait a bit for the answer. However, I will give you a hint. The answer is shown in the image below.

As we begin to wind down the 2022 fiscal year, most business owners are thinking about or already beginning their planning cycle for the new calendar year ahead. They’re going through the early stages of the goal-setting process, reviewing the quarterly performance, and putting together annual budgets, forecasts, staffing plans and financial projections for the coming year.

It’s an exciting time of the year and right now, looking through those rose colored lenses, the future looks exceedingly bright. But what is missing? What’s missing is a reality check. Have we done our due diligence? Have we asked the most basic, fundamental question that should be answered before we charge ahead? Probably not. Continue reading…

Don’t Miss It! Register TODAY and Invite a Friend!!

M3 Power Network Breakfast

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21st at 8:30 AM

JOIN US AT …

THE REC OF GRAPEVINE, GRAPEVINE, TX

Leave a Legacy of HOPE. Make happiness, joy and purpose a part of your life.

Do you want to grow personally, professionally and spiritually, while making those great new personal connections? If you want to GROW, then you have to GO!

Our GOAL is to get YOU connected. So, join us for GREAT FOOD, NETWORKING and INSPIRATION at the M3 Power Network breakfast on Saturday, October 21st at the Rec of Grapevine.

M3 Power Network is DFW’s faith-based Premier Networking Group engaging dedicated professionals like YOU to focus on Missions, Marketplace, and Motivation. Our purpose is to Encourage, Educate and Empower You.

Our good friend, Tom Ziglar is back with us, and will be the Keynote Speaker for our October 21st event. Tom is the current CEO of Ziglar, Inc. and is a highly recognized motivational speaker, author and trainer. He not only shares a last name with his father, Zig Ziglar, but he also carries on his philosophy, “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Come, learn and be inspired!!

You can register TODAY at the M3 Power Network Events site on Facebook or on Meetup to reserve your seat.

Meetup Link to RSVP

Facebook Link

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, October 21st!!!

John

REGISTER NOW

Sales Funnel vs. Sales Process

“Sales Process” most often refers to the repeatable set of steps your sales team takes with a prospect to move them from an early stage to a closed sale. Many of the articles I have read on this topic refer to the Sales Funnel and the Sales Process as the same thing. However, my view of the two is somewhat different.

From my vantage point, you should have a clearly defined Sales Process for prospects and existing clients. Why? Because the sequence of events, hand-offs, deliverables and timeframes may be different for prospects vs. clients. These key differences should be understood by you and your sales team in moving prospects to clients, staying in-touch and building those long-term business relationships.

The “Sales Funnel” on the other hand, reflects all of the active sales projects that result from the various interactions with both prospects and clients.

Our BLF ELITE Mastermind group has been working on the areas of Sales Process and Funnel Management for the past two months. And I want to share some thoughts with you from our work in the hope that it will help you build more effective sales processes for your business.

Sales Funnel … Is opportunity driven. The Sales Funnel provides a visual snap shot of all of the active sales opportunities that you are working on, and their various stages of completion from warm lead to Customer Acceptance. It is also the virtual “lifeline” for your business to both new and existing customers in driving sales revenues. Continue reading…

Relaunch of the Business Leaders Forum℠

Are You Passionate About Spending More Time Working ON Your Business And Learning Strategies To Help You Achieve The Results To Move Beyond Your Vision?

Growing a business in today’s challenging economic climate can be a daunting task for any business leader. Are you struggling to find the right formula for success to take your business to the next level and beyond? Do you need expert advice to help you …

  1. Develop a “game plan” to improve your sales and profits outlook, launch new products or services, and/or marketing initiatives?
  2. Change your business direction, enter new geographic markets or develop new sales channels?
  3. Get a new business venture started and develop the blueprint that will lead to future prosperity and growth?
  4. Develop new leadership skills and competencies, and discover YOUR personal plan for success?

The Business Leaders Forum mastermind program can help you address these critical business challenges, and achieve the results to move beyond your vision in a balanced way!

I know what you’re thinking … here we go again with yet another hollow sales pitch that makes wild claims but delivers little to no value in return. Well, not this time! The Business Leaders Forum℠ is a proven strategic mastermind program first launched in September, 2009 that has helped numerous entrepreneurs, small business owners and business leaders over the past several years dramatically improve business performance, while helping them achieve their personal and professional goals.

NOW, we have incorporated the very best elements of this highly regarded mastermind program into a new, advanced business leaders’ series. Continue reading…

Prospecting: Like Hunting for Werewolves

Prospecting can sometimes feel like hunting for werewolves, particularly if there is no full moon. And what better time to talk about werewolves than at Halloween, right?

Yes, prospecting can be a scary, time consuming and frustrating process. There are lots of ghouls, goblins and things that go bump in the night out there that can derail your efforts to secure new business and achieve your revenue goals. If you don’t have a solid game plan to reach your intended targets, you can spend a lot of time, energy and resources chasing your tail, with little or no return on investment (ROI).

Werewolf Marketing

So, what is the best way to maximize the return on your prospecting investment, and avoid getting caught in the jaws of the prospecting beast? Continue reading…

Make the Most of Yourself

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whether it’s your business, health or life, the ultimate goal is to make the most of yourself. Making the most of yourself begins with good health – body, mind and spirit. For this article, rather than talk about business, leadership and related topics, let’s shift the focus to ways to improve your health so you can be the BEST YOU.

The steps to better physical health are not rocket science. The formula is simple –20140816_111324 healthy diet, eat smaller portions, exercise regularly, sleep 7- 8 hours a night, drink lots of water, and take it easy on the desserts and adult beverages. However, committing to and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are the biggest obstacles for the vast majority of us.

Let me start with a disclaimer: I’m not a personal trainer, fitness guru, dietician or nutritionist. I’m a business and leadership coach who has become more attuned to my health and fitness levels as I’ve grown older (I’ll be 66 years young in October). From my own experience, I want to share some exercise and diet tips, particularly with all the “seniors” out there who want to continue to get better with age.

“If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?” – Nancy Carson

As we get older, stuff happens. Our metabolism slows, we lose strength and muscle mass, the body starts to breakdown, and it becomes harder to maintain the activity and fitness levels we enjoyed in our 20’s. But that doesn’t mean we should just “veg-out”. Far too many adults (and children) in this country are overweight and out of shape due of poor diet, lack of exercise and lifestyles issues. It’s a $270 billion problem and a growing (no pun intended) human tragedy.

You don’t have to starve yourself or be a gym rat to get healthy, lose weight and stay in shape. All it takes is a little planning and intestinal fortitude on your part. Ready to get going? Here is an easy to follow workout program I designed for myself early this year to give you some ideas to get started and stay active. Continue reading…

Shrink the Learning Curve on Everything

In the fast-paced, ‘get it and go’ world we live in today, shrinking the learning curve on new things has become a virtual necessity, and one way to stay ahead of the competition. In most areas of life, there are tangible benefits to getting better, faster and accelerating our ability to acquire new competencies and skills.

In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell stated that it requires 10,000 hours of practice (10,000-Hour Rule) to master a specific task. Unless you plan to become a brain surgeon, most of us don’t have 10K hours to devote to the mastery of new competencies, skills, projects or tasks.

Learning Curve

So, what are some proven ways to shrink the learning curve and move from “you don’t know what you don’t know” to mastery without cutting corners or sacrificing quality?  Continue reading…

Are You Final Four Worthy?

The Men’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament is the sporting event I most look forward to each year. March Madness has been in full swing for the past couple weeks with some of the very best match-ups in tournament history.

Although I will not be collecting $1 billion from Warren Buffett this year, I did enter my bracket selections like I do every year. It is really not about the prize money. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d graciously accept it if I won. However, for me it’s more about enjoying great basketball games and seeing how many of the teams I selected are able to reach the Final Four.

March Madness

What does it mean to be Final Four worthy? Continue reading…

Make Continuous Improvement a Priority

Where does continuous improvement rank on your list of priorities? If it is not at or near the top, then it should be.

Continuous improvement is essential to growth in all of the critical ‘Five F’ areas of life – faith, family, finances, fitness and fun. However, for this article, let’s focus on continuous improvement within the context of the business community.

Start out by asking yourself this question, “What would your business look like if Jack Welch, or Warren Buffett, or Bill Gates were running it?” Continue reading…

Marketing Secrets for the New Economy – Part 1

Marketing Secrets for the New Economy – Part 1 overviews the opportunities we have as entrepreneurs and business owners to dramatically increase revenues and profits in the ‘new economy’. Part 2 will address the importance of globalizing your business for sustainable long-term growth.

We have all heard many times over that most millionaires have a total of seven income sources. In the first part of the article, you will see examples of how you too can systematically create multiple income streams for a business around your greatest asset – YOU.

The image below reflects what these multiple income sources might include for a typical emerging business. I refer to this chart as the “Circle of Life” because it also provides an evolutionary path for scaling a growth business through the various life-cycle stages.

YOU

Now let’s explore each of these potential revenue streams in a little more detail, so you have a better idea of how applicable they may be for your particular situation. Continue reading…