Nicholas Bate

Beat The Recession: Twenty-Five Clusters of Five: Number 24

It's time to increase prices. You've taken a hit and held prices for over 18 months, lowered some and done many a deal. But they need to go up.

1. You need margin and profit to start re-investing to ride the recovery;
2. Your prices are starting to look too low for the value that you give;
3. You need to give notice of prices going up-the longer the notice the better;
4. Your team needs pay increases and bonuses for all the tough work they have been doing and to avoid losing the best of them;
5. You believe in your product .

So You Want to be Happier?

Read on....

What's Your Lag and Lead?

Your lag is how long it takes you to address an issue. How long does it take your sales team to get a response into the enquirer's in-box? How long does it take you to get back to your friend Jamie's e-mail about whether you can get together when he's in Chicago next month? Too long a lag you can lose business, frustrate friends and cause tensions in a relationship. Think about them and adjust them.

Your lead is how 'ahead of yourself' you are. Were you surprised on Monday morning to discover that you had the quarterly review on Wednesday? Is your up-coming holiday in Spain in a  bizarre kind of way causing stress? Maybe your 'lead' needs increasing? Establish a simple procedure of every couple of days doing a 'forward view' i.e. looking through your schedule to see what is coming up and noting the necessary actions.

Control What You Can

Yesterday, today, any day can be potentially frustrating because of what seems out of our control: the mood of our boss (bad), the number of times the phones on the sales desk ring (too few) and the worth of our stock market portfolio (far too low). In any 'out of our control' there is normally an element-however small- that is in our control. Work on that. Give that attention. Become a master of that aspect.

E.g. the mood of our boss. Are there better times of the day to tackle him? Does it work to anticipate the issues by sending him a preparatory e-mail etc?

Sales enquiries. What cause the phones to ring? What marketing activity works?

The value of our stock market portfolio? Is that too great a % of our financial planning? What might be a better mix with other potential investments?

The paradoxical thing is that when aspects of out life seem out of control from getting a speeding ticket to losing a book deal, the essential thing is to  re-connect with what we can control. There's always something.

Why We Love The Beatles 85 of 100

You’ve got the magisterial classics: Hey Jude, Let it Be and Yesterday. You’ve got the awesome B sides such as Rain.  You’ve got those wonderful early ones such as Love Me Do. And then there’s: Got To Get You Into My Life. Surprisingly easy to forget about and never get around to on your iPod... which would be a shame as it just reminds you: there’s nothing not worth listing to in the Beatles Opus.A taut, stonking number it-like all Beatles music grounds you and connects you. And as with so many of Paul’s and John’s lyrics, listening to the words carefully  gives us the gentlest of nudges we need to play Life fully: I was alone, I took a ride, I didn't know what I would find there….Another road where maybe I could see another kind of mind there. The whole of Life is in The Beatles Portfolio, but you’ve got to listen to them all and more than once, too. After all you wouldn’t want to miss any of the clues to the mysteries hidden Across the Universe?

That's another reason we love The Beatles.

On structuring your day...

...with a thoughtful blogger.

12 Ways To Make Your Presentation More Impactful For The Audience and More Fun For You

1. Get into the room early and work out how you can get physically closer to the audience.
2. Remove as many distractions as possible: posters in the audience eye-line, for example.
3. Remove all obvious sense of time e.g. a clock above your head.
4. 1/3 into your presentation use a story to reinforce the points you are making.
5. 2/3 into your presentation change media e.g. from PowerPoint to whiteboard.
6. Do the Q & A before the summary.
7. Start on time. Yes, even though many people are late. Reward the behaviours you seek.
8. Finish on time. If you continue to talk, you many have them physically, but certainly not mentally.
9. Read Presenting101.
10. Stay in control: do not let someone asking questions remove your leadership position.
11. As soon as you finish and the room clears, write your own personal review: what went well? And less well? 
12. Plan your presentation to meet your outcome, not to fill the time available with PowerPoint slides. 

Meaningful Monday

Mondays get such a hard time. They really do. And yet they are real 'fresh start' territory, magical in their promise and possibility:

1. You can justify a new notebook from the stationery cupboard and freshly-sharpened pencils.
2. You've got a great new initiative for the week for the team;
3. You are well-rested from an exciting week-end;
4. And keen to implement the ideas from last week's workshop; 
5. In-box is close to zero, ready for the fray;
6. This morning's newly constructed play-list coming in on the bus was a real winner; 
7. Vamos!  

Beat the Recession: Twenty-Five Clusters of Five: Number 23

It's time for secret shopper. How are you doing?

1. Make the phone call. How are you handled?
2. Fill in the web-site enquiry form. How long for a response? Automatic or personalised?
3. Take a long, hard look at your reception area. Well?
4. Read the literature. And?
5. Write a report as if you were a highly-paid external consultant. Get action on all the weak areas.

I Know You Are Sexy Already, But

why not be even sexier.