Personally, I’m no stranger to problems myself. Last fall comes to mind when I was dealing not only with a very difficult personal issue that I won’t mention here, but skin cancer, two lawsuits, challenges with a key employee, turnover and a big, gut wrenching problem with a key client. All this landed on my plate during a time when I was traveling about every other week during the busiest time of year for us. Yet I didn’t skip a beat and kept all my personal and professional commitments, quickly reorganized some business plans and initiatives and had to put a few major projects on hold. Only prayer and few good, stiff drinks got me through. And no, I don’t wear a cape and I don’t share this with you to brag – I share this with you because many people never see that side of my business or life and think I’m somehow “lucky” to have “everything going for me” when nothing could be further from the truth. I just don’t go around complaining about it.

Fortunately, things have turned around quite nicely; sales are up, the boot camp was sold out a month early, and so far (knock on wood) everything is going according to plan. So to answer this question, I can only share with you what I did.

1. Choose only one or two really key initiatives and focus on them. As the saying goes, when you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s tough to remember your original goal of draining the swamp. Now more than ever you have to know what’s most important and hunker down to focus on these alone, cutting all the other time-wasting fat from your schedule.

2. Get around people who will support you. Dr. Hallowell says you should never worry alone. That’s great advice – but make sure you “worry” with people who can actually provide you constructive advice and the kind kick in the butt you might need to pull you socks up and get moving again. Peer groups and Master Mind groups are best for this. On multiple occasions I’ve had members going through seriously difficult times who were able to turn things around fast after braving a “hot seat” during a meeting.

3. Be the ant, not the grasshopper. You KNOW problems are coming…it’s inevitable. Your next grand, sweeping failure or crisis is right around the corner; so what are you doing now to prepare for it? One of the things that saved me was the fact that I had been working very hard to build reliable marketing systems and operations in the business…so when crisis hit, that was (at least) one area that wasn’t bleeding. I’m also a BIG believer in getting yourself completely out of debt (home, cars, etc) and saving up 6-8 months of personal income, as well as 3-6 months of retained earnings for your business. It’s amazing how that keeps Murphy away. If you want more on this, tune into my friend Dave Ramsey.

4. Never forget how you respond to a problem is a choice. Two people get on a rollercoaster. One is thrilled and having the time of their life. The other is terrified, white knuckling it the whole time. What’s the difference? The meaning and interpretation they give to the exact same experience.

I’ve heard people say that, “Adversity builds character.” I don’t believe that. I think adversity REVEALS character…and if you’re already plagued with lousy work habits, poor management of money, no real reliable marketing systems in place, no solid client base, and a complete lack of a plan and concrete goals, one little bump in the road is going to kill you. Obviously the best way to survive a crash is to avoid it in the first place.

Helping owners of computing consulting firms (or MSP’s) achieve significant bottom-line, measurable results in business takes MORE than just giving them a great marketing campaign – it actually requires 3 critical elements all working synergistically.

By the way, these three elements have been carefully researched and documented and are essential for any individual trying to break free from bad habits or trying to achieve success in an area they have been consistently struggling with. If you want validation of this, then I suggest you read “Change or Die,” written by Alan Deutschman; this is one of the most well-documented books on this very topic.

Critical Success Element #1: A Coach. Every successful entrepreneur, actor, and top athlete has a coach. No one ever won an Olympic Gold Medal without a coach. Michael Jordan was “cut” by his high school basketball team before his coach stepped forward and personally mentored him to become the greatest basketball player of all time. The Green Bay Packers wouldn’t have been the winning team they were without their coach Vince Lombardi. And according for Forbes Magazine, more and more of the nation’s top entrepreneurs are using MULTIPLE coaches to help them take their game to the next level.

With my clients, I can see them secure dramatically better results the more personally I get involved. That does not mean giving them more “stuff.” It does mean helping them to think more strategically, coaching them on how to manage their time better and providing other staff and support resources to enable them to execute and implement.

Critical Success Element #2: A Trusted Peer Group. Also commonly called a mastermind group, as coined by Napoleon Hill in his classic book, “Think and Grow Rich.” While I’ve certainly got a lot to contribute, a HUGE part of the value in MY mastermind groups is the collective experience and knowledge of the members themselves. Even if I didn’t show up to these meetings, the value that my members would get from being in a room of sharp, heavy users of solid sales & marketing strategies would be worth 10 fold the price of admission.

Of course, I am there and DO have a lot to share…including new breakthroughs and very recent discoveries, marketing plans, business strategies and money-making opportunities, but the point is that a Mastermind group of peers in and of itself holds tremendous value.

Critical Success Element #3: Repetition. Let’s face it; learning how to be a better entrepreneur and marketer takes time and practice – no one achieves superpowers overnight. That’s why my top coaching clients insist on getting OUT of their office at least once a quarter to participate in highly-productive environments where they actually work ON their businesses, ON their marketing plans and think CRITICALLY about the direction of their business. That’s also why they have WEEKLY “Accountability Group” calls, get on MONTHLY training calls to sharpen their skills, and oftentimes need constant “reminders” to keep themselves focused. Every entrepreneur needs that “stern but loving parent” to keep themselves on track at times.

Here are some ideas on how you can implement this in your managed services close:

1. Response time to issues or phone calls
2. Reducing downtime to X minutes per month or less
3. The client’s satisfaction with the service based on THEIR perception
4. No viruses or spyware, or you’ll remove & clean the virus at no charge to them
5. No data loss or crashes or you’ll incur all the fees and costs of restoring the network

And if you discover that a large percentage of the people you sell to abuse your guarantee, you either need to do a better job delivering your services or change the type of client you are selling to.

What do you guarantee in your managed services contracts?

Do You Feel Lucky?

When I was a kid I went through a phase when I carried around a rabbit’s foot for luck. I still remember it: tie-dye purple on a keychain, tied to my blue roller skates with rainbow laces. I can’t honestly say I had any good fortune come my way because of it, but it did make me feel luckier.

Of course now that I’m an adult, I know better than to depend on silly charms or superstitions for the success (or failure) in life. Yes, I admit there are times when everything’s going pear-shaped and I wonder if I’ve crossed a black cat somewhere, but the truth is, 99% of the time we create our own circumstances – our own luck – by the choices we make.

Many of the people who knew me as a kid think I’m “lucky” to be where I am today, often citing the fact that I was “always that way,” born with some inherent abilities to run a business. And to a certain point, I agree. I DO feel fortunate to have certain talents that others seem to struggle with. But simply putting my success down to the “luck” of having been gifted certain talents is an insult. It wasn’t “luck” that made me spend thousands of dollars on my own education and work 60+ hour weeks for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t “luck” that I learned how to write persuasive sales copy, sell from the platform or implement highly effective marketing plans. And it’s not “luck” that keeps my business growing 25% – 40% year upon year.

Conversely, it wasn’t BAD luck that I screwed up royally and kept myself from hitting my goals for the past two years, going through staff problems, vendor problems, and a host of other troubles piled a mountain high, including skin cancer and other health issues. I made choices and decisions that were 100% cause and effect, no bad luck involved – only poor judgment on my part. I painted myself into a corner more than once, but I was always the one holding the paintbrush.

If you own a business, I think you’ll also agree that the successes you have are NOT by luck either…

It’s not luck that keeps you getting out of bed early every morning, working yourself into the wee hours of the night. It’s not luck that allows you to close a big managed services deal, keep customers, manage a team and generate a profit. It’s not luck that made you smart enough to jump on the managed services bandwagon or develop subscription income in your IT business that is now helping you survive. There’s no “luck” involved in growing your IT services business successfully or even holding your own in this tough economy. Far from it. In fact, I think most of you reading this will agree that, if anything, you get more of a helping of BAD luck than others simply because you’re out there trying to make things happen, constantly fighting gravity.

That being true, you can’t blame “bad” luck for the messes you are in either. Like me, the “bad” luck I experience is usually due to a lack of preparation, prevention or doing the things I KNOW I SHOULD be doing, but neglect to do until it turns into a mess that must be dealt with. Almost every problem that arises can be traced back to a series of bad decisions, poor choices, or LACK of actions we should have taken, but didn’t.

As Earl Wilson once said, “Success is only a matter of luck. Just ask any failure.”

So to all my fellow entrepreneurs; let me send you off into your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with this little Irish blessing:

May those who love us, love us.
And for those who don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he can not turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we may know them by their limping.

At my last 25K meeting, one of my colleagues, Tellman Knudson, shared how he was getting absolutely trashed online as a scam artist for trying to do a good deed.

Last year, Tellman decided to raise awareness and money for homeless teenagers by throwing down a pretty incredible challenge: he would run barefoot across America. The web site is www.runtellmanrun.com if you are interested.

I know what you’re thinking…he’s nuts. When I heard this I thought the same thing; BUT I also know that without some type of outrageous stunt like this, his charitable efforts would just blend in with all the other charities and get no media coverage.

As you may have already guessed, he didn’t accomplish his goal and had to stop the run because of severe damage to his feet. At that point, he had already invested over 1/2 million dollars of his OWN money to promote this new charity, not to mention the countless hours he invested to get it off the ground.

But, just as sure as vultures to a fresh carcass, many of his critics had a field day and started completely bashing him online, stating his “charity” was a complete scam and that there was no such organization created. I happen to know that is not true, and the things they are stating as “facts” are indeed half truths told in a way to purposefully mislead people. I won’t bore you with all the details.

The reason I share this story with you is because the BEST comment on how to deal with this came from my friend Richard Rossi, the CEO of EMI, who, after giving some suggestions for dealing with this PR nightmare said, “Toughen up—this is success tax.” So why is this important for you?

Because at multiple points in your entrepreneurial life, you will be faced with similar circumstances where people will try to undermine you, tell half-truths and do everything they can to make you look bad and take you down — and I positively guarantee that the MORE successful you become, and the more purposeful your mission, the worse it gets. And as your business grows, you’ll be forced to make tough decisions that are NOT popular with the masses. I also believe that at some point you’ll just have to choose to do what’s right rather than what’s popular, knowing that no matter what you do, someone is going to have a problem with it, and they’ll spend their waking hours telling everyone they know instead of engaging in more productive activities.

To quote Albert Einstein, “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

So toughen up, buttercup. If you’re going through this right now, just realize this is “success tax” and no one gets away without paying their dues.

But imagine for a moment those who lose. Countless hours of training and hard preparation down the drain…the bitterness, the pain and crushing disappointment. You’re the 2nd fastest, best and most skilled athelete in the world and you get ZERO recognition – and some never to have a second chance. Competitive sport is like that…full of one season wonders, even one-game wonders. I saw George Foreman speak one time about his comeback and how difficult it was to overcome the unbelievable negativity and outright taunts launched at him over and over again from the media and public. He said, “One minute you’re the heavy weight champion of the world and everyone admires and respects you…then the next minute you’re just George, a has-been.”

Business is like that too; an endless string of medicore results, dissapointments and failed objectives with shining brief moments of unbelievable success. Knowing that, it’s important to do two things:

1. Make sure you celebrate your “wins” when they happen. They are fleeting, and within moments you’re attention will be swept away by some stress-filled problem or dillemma.

2. Constantly work on recharging your batteries. It bugs me that personal development gets such a bad rap; it doesn’t surprise me because those who are failing find it much easier to attack anyone or anything suggesting personal responsibility. But you as an entrepreneur have to be smarter than that. You cannot get inspired results from uninspired people – and if you aren’t reading, listening or ‘consuming’ some type of on-going motivational and educational material that reawakens the go-getter in you, I know you’re performing at a less than optimal level.

For me, working on my company vision and strategy juices me. Listening to my mentors and learning an elegant idea that I hadn’t thought of before — be it a new opportunity, a new marketing approach or a better way of accomplishing a goal — charges me more than a week’s vacation. But mostely, hanging around with successful, like-minded entrepreneurs is what re-energizes me the most. This week in the office Martin Howey is coming to “Robin Central” to deliver a one-day training on how to close a managed services sale, and I’m EXCITED about it. Some of my BEST students are also coming in and I’m absolutely 1,000% certain everyone will leave with batteries charged to the max because those coming are battery-chargers, not battery drainers. I know I’m going to spend the entire day on Saturday distilling and documenting what I learned – and I’ll be enthusiastic to do it.

So my question to you is this: what have you done over the last week, month or quarter to recharge your batteries? To re-inspire yourself about your business and gain that edge of enthusiasim that makes you jump out of bed in the morning rarin’ to go for your gold?

But I seem to have a hard time getting people to understand that it’s not the list that you buy that will save you, but rather the list that you build.

As of today, I have over 15,000 warm prospects and customers on my list.  When I started out 8 years ago, I didn’t have 100.  BUT, I diligently groomed, mailed, and added to that list to make it what it is today — and now I can generate sales very easily because I have a ready-made, highly qualified, highly interested list to mail to.  How did I build it?  Entirely through joint ventures and other direct response advertising.

And I cannot urge you enough to make sure that you are passionate about building and communicating to your house list.  To that end, a few pointers…

1. Make sure EVERYONE goes into your database. Of course, you must HAVE a database in order to put people in it.  NEVER let a business card grow old on your desk.  Put it in a database and make sure you source every lead (meaning you have a field that tells you where the person came from).  In our office, I constantly repeat the mantra “Everyone goes into ACT!”  You need to do the same in your office… and the habit starts with YOU.
2. Don’t just put clients and prospects on your list; also include joint venture partners and people of influence. If you know the Chamber Director, a local columnist, the chair of a charity or an association, put them in your database and communicate with them as often as your clients.
3. Mail your house list more consistently. If you don’t, you kill any momentum you may have started to generate.  This happens all the time where someone starts mailing a monthly newsletter and then gets busy and “forgets” to mail their lists for a couple of months.  Bad idea!  Timing is critical to making a sale in the IT world.  If you aren’t consistently showing up on your clients and prospects desks, you are missing out on opportunities.
4. Mail your house list more frequently.  As the old saying goes, out of sight out of mind. If you are ever in need of good ideas (and are a client), just dig into the Toolkit or Managed Services Blueprint or heck, even my monthly newsletters to look for inspiration.  Frequency builds familiarity, and familiarity breeds trust.  That’s why it’s a fact that people traveling to foreign countries will eat at a McDonalds over the local fare.  They know what to expect.
5. Mail your cold prospects, unconverted leads, and lost customers more persistently. There’s an old direct marketing joke that isn’t very funny, but it makes the point:  A guy calls up a mail order company aggravated by all the mail they are sending him and demands that they take him off the list.  The person answering the phone looks him up in the database and says “I don’t really think you want to do that.”  He angrily replies, “Why not!?!?”  He says, “Because you are on the “A” list.  If I take you off of that, you’ll be placed in the “B” list.  And while you can get off the “A” list any time you want, you can NEVER be taken off the “B” list.”  (okay, I didn’t say it was going to be funny)
6. Make your mailings more creative. Lumpy mail, grabbers, stories behind the offer, pictures of you, your staff, your dog, etc.  Of course, don’t be creative just for creative sake — make it interesting and tied to selling something.  You want your customers & prospects to actually open your mail because they want to see what you’re up to.

My client got out of bed, drove down to his office, and identified HIS TOP SALESPERSON as the ring-leader of this late-night party.

Following are the details of what happened that night…

It ends up that earlier that evening, my client’s TOP SALESPERSON (we’ll call him Bill….although, of course, that’s not his real name) stole a company van, drove downtown, and picked up two prostitutes and a couple cases of beer.  He then drove back to the office, opened it up and they got the party started.  Unfortunately for Bill, he got too drunk to even realize that he had set off the alarm.  When the police arrived to investigate the reason for the alarm, they found Bill and his new friends in the midst of their party!

Well, needless to say, the police broke up this impromptu party and were in the process of arresting Bill.  They had him hand-cuffed and were trying to determine who he was and how he had gained access to my client’s office.  Bill wasn’t able to explain to the police who he was or how he got in.  He was confident though that he should not be arrested.  Bill begged the police to call his boss (my client), stating that his boss would be able to identify him and explain how and why Bill should have access to the office.  That’s what led to the late-night / early-morning phone call.

Once my client arrived, he was able to explain to the police that Bill was and employee of his, again (and unfortunately for my client) his TOP SALESPERSON.  He was eventually able to piece together the reason behind Bill’s abnormal and unacceptable behavior………it turns out that Bill was Bi-Polar and had gone off his meds!  My client showed mercy and did not press charges against Bill.  However, as you can imagine, this incident did lead to Bill’s termination of employment.

There are several morals to this story, but the most relevant one is that YOU CAN’T RELY ON JUST ONE REALLY GOOD EMPLOYEE BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT LOSE THEM.

At my upcoming Boot Camp (www.robinsbigseminar.com) April 14-17 in Nashville, leading Top-Grading consultant Chris Freiburger will cover how to identify, hire, coach and promote “A” players in your business and how to redeploy (or eliminate) B and C players.

Tell me about a horror employee story in your business…

The top 3 horror employee stories posted below by next Friday, February 5^th win a copy of Chris Freiburger’s book “Avoid Costly Mis-Hires!  Hire 90% High Performers with Topgrading Best Practices”.

New Years Resolution #7:  Get your online “presence” fixed

Okay, I DON’T like the word “presence” because it sounds like a meaningless fifty-cent word, but I don’t have a better one (yet) to describe all the elements that fall under your online marketing strategy.  Even though I’ve said over and over again how important it is to have a web site that sells, far too many members are still struggling with this and have web sites that look like a 12 year old designed them—not to mention the broken links and graphics. I’m not going to launch into a lesson here on web marketing because I’ve more than covered the basics in the Toolkit session on the subject, but I will say this: it used to be “okay” for a company to have a good web site…now it’s becoming critical.  I’m hearing from more members on how their web site is not only generating a significant portion of their new customers, but for those who DON’T have it figured out, how their LACK of a good web site, blog, Facebook page, etc. is actually hurting sales. Why? Because (like it or not) clients think that because you are a “technology” company, you should have a great web site, even though I know the two are entirely different specializations.

New Years Resolution #8:  Get off your duff and implement MORE

I don’t know that this one needs a lot of explanation, other than to just do it.  Just make sure you know what you’re doing before you start hiring people and/or companies to help you.  Offloading the responsibility of marketing to someone else when you don’t know the difference between good marketing and bad is a surefire path wasting a lot of money.