March 2007:  Turn Your Business Upside Down
April 2007: Synergizing with Your Customer Drives Your Financial Engine
May 2007: Jumpstart Your Business Today!
June 2007:Enthusiasm Sells Houses, Planes, Trains and Automobiles!
July 2007: Deal or No Deal - Can You Cut It?
August 2007: Save Me Time! Save Me Money! Put Me First! -
January 2008: When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going!
February 2008: Be a “First Giver”.

March 2007: Turn Your Business Upside Down

World-class companies are turning themselves upside down. They’ve found that the old top-down pyramid style of management doesn’t work. So they’ve inverted the pyramid, giving all employees more say in what goes on. And it works, as evidenced in improved customer satisfaction, sales and profitability.

Interested in Inverting the Pyramid and Synergizing Your Business?

Here are some tips:

• * Build Synergy by making teamwork and service a core value.
• * Challenge employees to come up with their own better ways to do their jobs.
• * Release the brain power in your business by seeking out ideas from everyone.
• * Treat everyone (internal and external customers) with honesty, respect, and courtesy.
• * Give authority to solve problems immediately.

By allowing employees more control over their work environment and more involvement in improving the quality of their jobs, you build zones of inspiration and highly profitable work environments.

April 2007: Synergizing with Your Customer Drives Your Financial Engine

Synergizing with Your Customer begins with treating everyone you work with as your customer. It incorporates the Golden Rule, "Treat others as you would like to be treated". It is a proven fact that employees tend to treat customers as they are treated by the company. Bad service and bad attitudes are merely reflections of the way in which people have become accustomed to treating one another. Synergy works from the "inside to out" and it's paramount that everyone in every department understand the principle of serving one another. Service from the internal to the external drives the financial engine of a business. Good service increases revenues, lowers costs and reduces staff attrition. Everyone should be service minded and empowered to solve problems immediately and directly. The senior executives, managers, service representatives, sales people and receptionists need to be committed to service. Trust and loyalty are reinforced when all customers are taken care of in an effective, efficient and friendly manner.

The Cost of Poor Customer Service

• It costs five times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one.
• Seven out of ten customers stop buying a product because they think the company doesn't care how they feel.
• Five out of ten customers who complain are dissatisfied with the response to their problems.
• Unhappy customers tell between eleven and fifteen other people about their dissatisfaction with a company.
• For every one complaint you hear, somewhere between ten to fifty complaints are not reported.
• Bad service can put a company out of business.

May 2007: Jumpstart Your Business Today!

It's easy to become overly harsh with your team when you are besieged with slow-downs and difficulties. Psychologists tell us it’s natural, but "natural" harshness will only worsen your situation. In tough times great sports coaches and leaders focus on passion, results and winning! . . . not the blame game.

Powerful Tips to Jumpstart Your Business Today:

• Clear vision, expectations and direction always produce results. Set up a "shot-in-the-arm" positive goalsetting session to direct and focus your team. Create shared destiny.
• Enthusiasm sells! Enthuse your team by empowering them to discover their own solutions.
• Energize and challenge each team member to take personal responsibility and ownership of the shared destiny.
• Move and shake! Coach, council, nurture and move each team member toward directional and deal clarity.
• Manage performance by giving constant feedback, reinforcement and rewards. Be specific! An average sales person can become a national champion under a focused, committed coach.

"The single constant to business success, is good leadership -
the art of shifting mind-sets, inspiring passion and delivering results."

June 2007: Enthusiasm Sells Houses, Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

The atmosphere in a model home, sales office or showroom - energized with enthusiasm and excitement - is a powerful, trust building attraction magnet. People want to do business with upbeat, successful companies.

Business leaders often overlook the importance of continuously firing up the atmosphere with enthusiasm and positiveness. Human beings come with rechargeable batteries and good leadership is the power source . . . the energizer bunny!

It’s a tough role; especially for the cynics of this world - but the payoff is miraculous.

Powerful Tips to Energize and Enthuse your People:

• Set co-authored short range, realistic goals with each sales person.
• Enthusiastically walk, talk and praise achievement.
• Cultivate a sense of spirituality through purposeful work, team interaction and social responsibility.
• Build people up - never demean anyone in front of their peers. This is an attitudinal virus that will flood your team with fear and doubt.
• Follow through on goals and listen for motivational hot buttons.

"Let’s Make it Happen!"
extracts from "The WOW! Factor"

July 2007: Deal or No Deal - Can You Cut It?

"Is it a deal or no deal? Many experienced negotiators will tell you that obsessing on that question will play havoc with your confidence levels and negotiating ability. Top negotiators have a optimistic and realistic state of mind - it’s a deal ... if all the pieces fit. If the pieces don’t, won’t or cannot fit - they walk away!"           - Chris Alexander

Seven Steps to Power Negotiating and the Art of Influence:

• 1. Preparation: "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail." Never a truer word spoken. Prepare yourself mentally, physically and strategically.
• 2. Understand Needs and Wants: Understand what you and the other party wants and needs. Be clear about this. Many negotiations have gone south because not enough time was spent on establishing dominant motivators.
• 3. Patience: The tough one! If you are good at poker, you will be a good negotiator. Impatience will not create confidence and trust.
• 4. Continuous Agreements: Start the negotiation from a wide non-threatening position, but with clear agreement points in mind. Start with small agreements and then move through an elimination process to larger and larger agreements.
• 5. Build Benefits and Value: As a part of your strategy, demonstrate your ability to deliver and more importantly your complete understanding of the other party’s needs and the value of moving ahead.
• 6. Build Synergy: Use your creativity with integrity to find greater and larger benefits than the obvious. Several additional "sweet spots" are discovered this way. Leading to long term and rewarding relationships and future deals.
• 7. Walk Away: As with all business negotiations, some will, some won’t, some do, some don’t - but through it all your strength lies in your ability to mentally, emotionally and financially walk away.
   

"Let’s Make it Happen!"
extracts from "The WOW! Factor"

August 2007: Save Me Time! Save Me Money! Put Me First! -

Do you focus your full attention on the voice of the customer?

It is all too easy to focus inward on our own daily activities rather than looking out for our customers. World class companies make a point of listening to the voice of the customer and deliver faster than their competitors.

Strategies That Save Your Customer’s Time and Money and Put Them First:

The “WOW” Factor!: Have you ever said: “WOW, I just love the way they took care of that problem - I’d go back to them in a heartbeat.” You’ve just been “WOWED”. It’s a magical experience and we want to repeat it again and again. “WOW” experiences are the result of a customer driven culture that saves customers time and money and puts them first.

Law of Attraction Marketing: The ways of the past are just not enough these days. You cannot think about marketing after you produced the product. Thinking you know how to do it can be the biggest blockage to listening to the ever changing voice of the customer.
The customer is demanding that you become more creative, more authentic, exceptional and unique. Your ideas must capture attention, be noticeable and highly attractive. What’s your vision? What’s your story? Can you communicate your story with impact and power? Does it stick and have a call to action? If not, go to work and find it - it’s in there . . . somewhere.

Right Fit! Right Job! Right Result! So often executives overlook the importance of careful selection and employ someone who is not the right fit. Wrong fits cause conflict, demotivation and can become very expensive.
Right fits on the other hand, revitalize the energy in a team, bring in new ideas and re-energize older team players. The right fit in the right job will give you the right result.

High Performance Teams: High performance teamwork remains the ultimate competitive advantage. When you get all the people in your organization working together towards a shared destiny - magic begins to happen. Teams always out perform other groups and teams are the best way to integrate across structural bounderies and energize the entire company.

“It is amazing what you can accomplish
if you do not care who gets the credit“
Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972)

January 2008: When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going!

The right mental attitude means making authentic and empowering choices that will help you grow - help others grow and lead to actions that are healthy, honest, and honorable. Most right attitudinal choices will build a foundation of strong values, validated self-esteem and trustworthy approachable behaviors - exactly what we need to help us through tough times.

10 Ways to Have the Right Mental Attitude

• 1. Exercise your privilege of choice and always look on the bright side of life.
• 2. Have an attitude of gratitude. Be grateful for the ability to work, for your health, family, friendship and life.
• 3. Take "me-time" once a day. Listen to your favorite music, laugh with a good friend, read something worthwhile, take a walk.
• 4. Learn something new: computer skills, selling, marketing, business writing, P.R., leadership and management skills.
• 5. Take pride in what you do - do everything as well as you can! Meet deadlines and be competent.
• 6. Take initiative and be a workplace leader - don't stand back - synergy is about involvement and helping.
• 7. Choose a job you love - or choose to love the personal growth you gain from what you are doing. All work is honorable.
• 8. Motivate, encourage and help others. The gift of self-esteem is received from giving of oneself.
• 9. Turn a weakness into a strength.
• 10. Choose to create joy in your life by improving the relationship with yourself, others and life.

Extracts from the new and revised edition of
Synergizing Your Business
by Chris Alexander
Available in bookstores everywhere in June 2008.

February 2008: Be a "First-Giver"!

 Being a first-giver means you believe in sharing and contributing, and not being a bystander. First giving is non-material. It is about whole heartedly supporting a purpose, cause or a team. Dedication is a powerful form of giving. You may be dedicated to your work, your church, your family or to life in general. Dedication often results in contributing positive energy, solutions, a good attitude, a soft face and a great person to work with. As a first giver, you manifest a universal law - the law of reciprocation. Human nature is such that if you treat a person with kindness, you will receive kindness in return. No matter how long it takes, even the most ardent cynics will eventually relent and return the kindness.

20 Ways to be a First-Giver

• Give unconditionally - Have no "fear" of loss.
• Give full attention and presence to those with you.
• Give by being competent and doing a great job.
• Give motivation and encouragement to your team.
• Give great service to internal and external customers.
• Give by embracing change.
• Give by following the golden rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated.
• Give by making eye contact and listening.
• Give by being innovative, creative and find better ways of doing things.
• Give respect by being on time every time.
• Give commitment to the vision, values and goals of your organization.
• Give your voice to something that will help make the team better.
• Give by valuing and supporting education and training.
• Give by mentoring, coaching and empowering others - Pay it forward.
• Give by doing it right first time.
• Give leadership by example.
• Give by being courteous and well mannered.
• Give by practicing quality in all you do.
• Give to those who are less fortunate.
• Give yourself the gift of giving.

"No-one ever needs a reason to be generous and kind"

Extracts from the new and revised edition of “Synergizing Your Business”
Available in bookstores everywhere in June 2008.