Turn Your Losses into Wins

Win/Loss Interview

by Terry Stidham

No one likes to lose business. The resulting empty feeling of losing a hard fought battle can be devastating. This is especially true if you lose a deal in one of your key accounts that was projected to close at a 75% rate or better. This can be an extremely disappointing time for you and your sales manager.

When you receive the news your initial reaction is to tell your client that they are making a mistake. They certainly must have missed something in your proposal! Your competition must have omitted something or misled them. They are making a BIG MISTAKE if they proceed with anyone other than you. Maybe your sales manager is asking you to set up a meeting in an attempt to unravel the deal. The extreme emotions that follow this bad news are all over the map. Most people in sales have been in this situation. The fact of the matter is the longer you are in sales and business development the more times this will happen. Sure we want to win every deal. And we all believe we should win every deal. But it is unrealistic to believe that we will have a 100% hit ratio. So let’s make sure we make the most from a lost sale and prepare better next time. 

This particular transaction may be lost but let’s be smart about learning from the loss. Instead of calling your client and telling him that he is not so bright let’s take the high road. Let him know that you value your relationship and apologize for not advancing a proposal that met their needs. Ask for a debrief meeting where you and maybe your sales manager can understand where your proposal feel short. If possible ask for a line by line explanation comparing your offer to the winning proposal. In many cases the client may not be willing to get into this detail but it is worth asking for. You want to learn what is the primary reason why you lost the business. And the only way you are going to get to the real reason is to act in a professional manner. Acting out of emotion and attempting to undo the deal during this debrief session is not a good idea.

Remember, the most important long-term goal and benefit of win/loss is to increase a company's new business win rate. This is achieved through an improved understanding of how a company's sales team, products, and services compare with the competition during the sales process. Other benefits include:

• Identifying a company's strengths and weaknesses
• Improving the effectiveness of sales presentations
• Determining key drivers for closing new business
• Using prospect feedback as a training and performance evaluation tool for sales and other presentation team personnel
• Formally sharing prospect perceptions across all areas of an organization to enhance product and service development
• Benchmarking and tracking a company's sales effectiveness, products, and services against the competition's

In-depth Win/Loss interviews with your prospects, customers, and defectors can help you discover answers to your most important business questions, including:

 
• What are the real reasons why you are winning and losing deals?
• What key market trends are you missing?
• What are your best and worst practices?
• What key features are helping you win?
• What key features are you missing?
• What is most important to your buyers
• How do the decision criteria differ based on the type of buyer?
• How are your competitors positioning themselves with your buyers?
• What do your competitors say about you to buyers?
• What training opportunities are you missing?
• How can your sales tools, marketing collateral, and presentations be improved?

 

Getting to the bottom line reason for the loss should be your primary objective. This information will not only better position you for future business in this account. It will also provide valuable feedback relative to how your competition is winning business. You can be sure that this competitor will show up in other accounts you are calling on. It will benefit you to gain as much competitive information as you can in this debrief session. Additionally, your client will appreciate your professional approach to losing this deal. This, of course, assumes you legitimately want to understand how you can better serve the account by learning from this loss. If done properly you will enhance the business relationship with your client and place you in a good position to pick up the business next time around.

Selecting a Consultant

The CFO and the Consulting Market                                                                                 

Ritobaan Roy recently wrote about how CFO's select consultants or consulting firms. He says, "The consulting industry has had an upswing; none more so than the Big Four as the market polarizes towards extremes in lean times. For the CFO hiring a consulting firm, looking only at cost though is short-sighted.

                                                               

 

Looking only at costs of hiring consultants may not work out well for the CFO

It has been a good crisis for consultants. The Management Consultancies Association (MCA) in the UK recorded a 5% growth in fees earned in 2011 and 2012. Demand for consulting services from the private sector went up 14% in 2011 and 10% in 2012 which made up for public sector austerity.
 

But this growth in business has been skewed. There are either the big brand firms or specialist, boutique firms that are taking on much of the work. Tom Rodenhauser, managing director of Kennedy Consulting Research and Advisory, thinks that the 20 largest firms will dominate revenue share in an industry estimated to be worth $200 billion globally today. “The irony is that as consulting markets have polarised and the middle has grown thinner, clients have been left searching for firms with a mix of local experience and global contacts,” says Fiona Czerniawska at Source for Consulting.

However, Christopher McKenna, a historian of the management consulting industry at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, is skeptical that the middle market in consulting will fade away. “In lean times, service markets always tend to polarize towards providers who differentiate themselves strongly and providers who commoditize certain services. When good times come back, there is plenty of opportunity again for mid-market players to make a profit.”

 

Size Versus Quality

Size will matter as consulting firms push themselves to provide the widest possible range of services spanning disciplines such as tax, risk assessment, strategy, operations and technology. This is where the Big Four firms, traditional auditing firms that have now morphed into consulting firms, will have an advantage. Mike Dobby, partner at Deloitte’s financial transformation practice, says, “Clients are getting better at bundling non-core services and outsourcing them to, for instance, Indian IT services firms. That has created intense price competition. But what we can do better is offer services that can look at deeper, more connected issues that affect the client’s business such as the tax dimensions of changes in a firm’s reporting and analytics.”

But size makes quality assurance that much more difficult. While a global brand is shared across countries, there can be quite a difference in the quality of the consulting brains on offer. Clients are frequently surprised when they hire a big brand firm in another country with confidence and then find out that the consulting expertise in not up to par.

As the Big Four firms expand into new service lines and geographies, they develop global tools and methodologies so that the work they produce is of a common standard. But this doesn't work all the time. Mark Hutchinson, partner at KPMG, says it can sometimes be a challenge to maintain uniformity in quality of service and human resources across many locations. “It’s tough to standardize quality when local prices vary so greatly. It also depends on the work. If a client in a low-cost market needs work that requires expertise from a high-cost market, there can be a tension in making the economics work and delivering what’s needed. But I could equally say this of any other multi-national enterprise,” he adds. McKenna agrees: “It's unrealistic for clients to assume a perfectly uniform standard of services across markets and countries. The large consulting firms could do this but then would have to increase their billing rates dramatically, something clients in those countries would not be prepared to pay for.”

Not Just Cost

These factors make it all the more important that the CFO invests in the right consultants and wisely. And much goes wrong in what CFOs hold dear – the price of the service. “If the company’s procurement staff is incentivized to simply drive down costs, then that’s a mistake when it comes to engaging consulting services. The key consideration should be the value that can be delivered, not just price that is paid,” says Alan Leaman, CEO of the MCA.

 

Looking at deriving value for the long run helps too. Bernd Brunke, executive committee member and CFO at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, advises CFOs to treat consultants as intellectual sparring partners, not just a service to be procured. “More and more CFOs see this additional value that notably small teams of senior consultants with a certain depth of experience can offer."

 

At the end of the day, the CFO should choose the right tool for the right job. “In my experience, when CFOs look at consulting services, they tend to hire individual consultants or contractors for cost considerations,” says Michael Knott of M-Comm Consulting and former partner at Booz and Accenture. “If it’s an incremental change, this could work. But for large, transformational changes, it is more cost effective for the CFO to hire an established consulting firm even though it may be more expensive. Often, the consulting firm can play the role of an unbiased change agent and help drive big changes through.”

Slow Down to Speed Up

Simplifying Tips to Be More Effective

by Terry Stidham

1. Mix things up - Try the opposite. Have the vegetarian dish if you always go for the meat. Walk away from a stupid conflict instead of making it worse. Let one thing go if you often cling to things. Make a habit of mixing things up to grow your life in small or bigger ways. And to make it easier and simpler to step out of your comfort zone in general when you really need to.
2. Get up 20 minutes earlier - This will help you to reduce stress in the morning and during the rest of the day.
3. Be 10 minutes early for meetings and appointments - This will help you to make your time of travel a time of rest and relaxation instead of stressful. And you will not be late.
4. Single-task - You be more focused, less stressed and get to done more quickly. So do one thing at a time and do it with your full attention.
5. Ask yourself: am I keeping things extremely simple? If not, figure out how you can do that in the situation you are in.
6. Ask yourself: will this matter 5 years from now? Or even 5 weeks from now? Do this to avoid making mountains out of molehills.
7. Buy things with the money you have earned and saved - Avoid getting into debt.
8. Learn a few recipes and cook - You’ll save money and probably eat healthier.
9. When you cook, cook more than you’ll eat - This will help you to spend less time on cooking and washing dishes. And you’ll have an extra dinner or two to just reheat when you don’t have time or energy to cook.
10. Write things down - Pretty much everyone’s memory is leaky. So help yourself. Write down what you need to do or shop for today. Write down what your top 4 priorities in life are and post that note where you can see it every day.
11. Remember that life is larger than you may think it is - You do not know everything and you are not always right. Remembering this makes it easier for me to learn things, to accept other viewpoints, to create changes and to stay more open.
12. Risk making mistakes. Learn from them - Then do again with that helpful new experience and knowledge in mind.
13. Do what YOU really, really, really want to do - Do not get stuck in trying to live someone else’s dream.
14. Go grocery shopping once a week - You’ll save money and time if you make the effort to plan for a week and to shop for it all at once.
15. Go grocery shopping when you not hungry - You’ll buy more healthy food instead of impulse buying yourself through the store.
16. Enjoy the simple pleasures - An apple, the latest episode of your favorite show, fresh and clean bed sheets, a hug and kiss, holding hands, the sun and blossoming nature after a long and cold winter.
17. Have a glass of water - Instead of eating when you are bored or when are having a craving have 1-2 glasses of water. This will help you to keep to those cravings away until the next meal and to maintain your health and weight.
18. Eat slower - Make your lunch time a time of relaxation rather than a time to just add to the stress of your morning. Try putting down the fork between bites to slow down the eating.
19. Be kind - Be kind to other people and especially to yourself.
20. Write shorter emails - 1-5 sentences is often enough.
21. Write emails only once a day - Batch and process them all at once all the way to an empty inbox.
22. Learn about ways to keep stress down and try them out - Examples would be mindfulness, setting human standards for you and saying no. A few such habits can help you to drastically cut down on the stress in your life.
23. Give everything its home - Then you know where to put the item when you have used it. You’ll know where to find it when you need it again. And you’ll reduce the clutter in your home or work space.
24. Slow down and enjoy and pay attention what is actually happening today - Instead of just rushing through the day and always on to the next thing.
25. Spend more time with people who make life simpler - And less time with people who make life unnecessarily complicated.
26. Exercise several times each week - This will reduce stress, up your energy levels and in my experience reduces negative thoughts.
27. Unclutter - Unclutter your life of the things that aren’t really that useful or meaningful for you anymore. Give that stuff away to someone who needs it. Or throw it out. A question that can help you to know if it is time to unclutter something out of your life is: have I used this item in the last year?
28. Look for advice from people who have been where you are - Learn from people who have been in the situation you are in and had the challenge you are having.
29. Stop trying to please everyone - There will always be people who you don’t get along with or that do not like you for some reason.
30. Break a task down into smaller and actionable pieces - Single-task that first piece until it is done. Then do the same with the next piece. And so on.
31. Stop trying to do things perfectly - Go for good enough instead and when you are there you are done. Get things all the way to done this way and then move on to the next thing.
32. Take a minute and just breathe a couple of times a day - This will help you to reduce the stress and overwhelm of your day. It will help you to reconnect with the present moment, to create a habit of living more mindfully and to focus all your attention on what is happening right now.
33. Spend just 20% of your time on dwelling on a problem and 80% of your time focusing on a solution - Instead of the other way around.
34. Focus on a few priorities in your life - Keep things simple to be able to put enough effort, attention and energy into those most important things. Rather than becoming spread too thin, rarely finishing things and being distracted by all those many other things you want to do or that feel you need to do too.
35. Keep a journal - By writing the facts and your thoughts and feelings down in a journal it becomes easier to work through a challenge and to find a good solution. You can also use a journal to track your actual results instead of guesstimating how your life is going. And to better remember all the things that you did well or that went well if you worry often or have quite a bit of negative thoughts.
36. Stop doing what you don’t like doing anymore -Life changes and so do you. If you you don’t like doing something anymore then perhaps it is time to stop doing that (even if it may take some time before you can do so by for example switching jobs).
37. Use a simple workspace - Minimize distractions,
38. Spend 30 minutes each Sunday to plan the next week - Write down your plans for the week, organize your prioritized to-do list and get ready for the week before you are in the middle of it all. This will help you to find more clarity, get more of the most important things done next week and minimize stress.
39. Cancel subscriptions for TV- channels, newsletters and magazines you rarely get around to watching or reading anyway.
40. Ask instead of guessing - Reading minds is hard. So, instead ask questions and communicate. This will help you to minimize unnecessary conflicts, misunderstandings, negativity and waste or time and energy.
41. Make one change at a time and start small -Focus on one habit or area at a time. If you want to start running or decluttering, start with doing just a few minutes of that activity a day or week. Then gradually increase the amount of time you spend on that activity to make it easier to adopt the new habit.
42. Relax - By using the tips in this article you’ll be able to get things done more quickly and in a simpler way. This will give more time in a regular week to simply be relax. To just take it easy alone or with family or a friend, to not do much at all. I highly recommend spending time to relax, to mindfully enjoy the small pleasures of life and to recharge yourself so that you can be effective and focused again later on.

Why Ask Why?

Top Question for Sales Leaders

 

Lonnie Scambi author of "The Entrepreneur's Yoda" wrote a recent post on why we should never stop asking why. He says that "anybody that has been around children knows the toughest question they can ask always begins with "why."  You can't fudge the answer to a "why" question! Where there's a problem, understanding "why" the problem exists, invariably puts you on the path to solving it.

 

It starts with "Why" do you do what you do? Is the answer the same one that you would have given when you took over you position?  If it's not, what's changed? Is that a positive or a negative? See how the "why" questions are so important?  They trigger other, even better ones. "Why" questions help us better understand ourselves and our function and roll. Note: "Because I said so," is not a valid answer.

 

Here are several critical "Why" questions I use regularly to keep on track:

Why did we win (lose) that sale?

It is crucial to analyze and understand why a sale closed or didn't, and learn from it. Even if you don't analyze all sales, you should know why you lost a sale and learn and build from that experience. A win/loss review should turn each experience into a learning experience.

Why would customers want to do business with us?

It's surprising how many companies take this one for granted, figuring that having a great product/service is the answer.

Why would people want to/not want to work for us?

This is a critical question to which a few businesses answer. It is easy to get caught up about how good their company is and how it is such great place to work. Conduct exit interviews. Ask your customers, vendors, suppliers and employees this question. The answers will aid you in making the changes needed to become world class.

Why do we have that policy or procedure?

Policies and procedures should be in place to make the business operate more efficiently not just as a CYA vehicle for the company or its management.

Why are we/aren't we making the number?

Do you know what's really underneath the numbers? This will drive a whole set of other why questions about costs and their makeup. How often do you really both analyze and communicate this to your team? It's important under either circumstance. When you are making money, you and your team know why and thus, what needs to be done to keep doing it. When you aren't, you know why not, and want needs to be done to correct it.

Why am I doing this?

This is a question that you should not only ask, periodically, but more important, have the answer in the form of a set of key objectives for both the company and for you, personally and professionally."

Additional Why Questions:

• Why does it work this way?
• Why is that our goal?
• Why did you say no?
• Why don't we enter this market?
• Why did you change your mind?
• Why are we having this meeting?
• Why not?

There isn't a more important question for leaders to ask than "why." Why would you ever stop asking it, and, of course, answering it?

Follow Up X 7

Follow Up to Improve Relations and Results

 

One of the most important and yet overlooked skills in business today is follow-up.

This applies to many parts of our business: sales, marketing, customer service and care, leadership, networking, branding, and more. It is a habit and a discipline that, when used effectively and regularly, will change your results and your life.

Kevin Eikenberry with the Sideboard gives us seven ways to incorporate more follow-up into your practices – and therefore seven ways to increase results.

1. Say Thank You - First and foremost, the must-do follow-up habit is to say thank you. Send an email, make a call, or best of all, send a hand written note. It is a terrific opportunity to follow up with the individual right away. Same day is best. Tell the Customer thanks for the new order. Tell the employee how much you appreciate their extra effort (or their normal effort over the long haul). Thank a person for a referral. Thank a colleague for the book or website recommendation. We all sent thank you cards after receiving graduation and wedding gifts. And while you may have done it because it was expected, it was really good practice for the rest of your life. I have a recurring task on my task list. It reads “Who do I need to thank today?”
2. Ask for Feedback - After completing a project, meeting, sales campaign, consulting engagement, or whatever, ask for some feedback. Preface your request by saying that you want to not only make sure that you have met their needs, but that you want to know how to continue to improve. Implement a win/loss interview.
3. Keep Track  - You’ve given an employee, vendor, supplier or customer some coaching or help on a specific issue, so follow-up to see how it is going now and if the results match what had been expected. Follow-up isn’t just a one time deal – it is an on-going commitment. You likely are interested in the progress others are making. Let them know by staying in touch and seeing how things are going and how you might be able to help.
4. Remain Interested  - This is one step beyond keeping track. It is remaining interested in the other person or group’s progress over the long term. Continue to check back on progress. Remaining interested shows that you care and have made the effort to remember about events and goals important to the other person.
5. Remember Important Events  - Top people call friends and colleagues on their birthdays and sings or at least tells them Happy Birthday – live or on their voice mail. I have done this occasionally in the past – but have made it a more normal part of my routine as well. Why? Because it makes people smile. Your kids and parents expect a happy birthday wish, but do your Customers? Your employees? Your vendors? Maybe you don’t sing, but you can still wish people happy anniversary, happy birthday or happy St. Patrick’s Day – especially if they are Irish!
6. Share Information You Know Matters to Them  - Have a colleague who has a rose garden? Send them the article about roses that you read last week. Have a co-worker who graduated from a certain college? Congratulate them when his team wins the big game. Have a Customer who loves tennis? Send them a link to the website you heard about that helps people improve their game. You get the idea. Follow-up by giving people information or comments that they know is just for them. It should be used throughout your career to keep your network fresh and engage. This could mean forwarding an article that you think she’ll find interesting, or congratulating her if you notice she’s been promoted or earned some sort of recognition. Maybe thanking her for a bit of advice that you employed. Keep it simple and brief, and don’t ask for anything back. If that person hears from you and has an update? She’ll absolutely be in touch. Try: “Hi Sue, We spoke last month about the product manager position at XYZ Industries. In our conversation, you highlighted some emerging trends in food packaging. I noticed this attached article about the same topic and thought of you. No response necessary. I hope you find the information useful!”
7. Have a Plan  - CRM systems are a great tool to track your calls and conversations with your contacts regularly. We have a process to connect with our most valued colleagues and Clients monthly. Our plan continues to be tweaked, but we have a plan because we know how important follow-up is. 

These seven suggestions show how valuable follow-up can be.

 

There is little about it that is hard. Being exceptionally good at follow-up requires focus, dedication, discipline, and a decision to do it. If you will make the decision you will become a more effective leader or supervisor. You will become a better networker. You will have greater sales. You will retain your relationships longer. Any of these are reasons enough to follow up.

 

More reasons to follow up:

• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people make more than three contacts
• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

Thank you for reading and sharing this!

First Impressions Set the Stage

First Few Moments Set the Stage

Geoffrey James posted this recent blog on  Inc.com that tells us it takes an audience about 15 seconds (at most) to decide whether your presentation is worth their attention. 

These four simple rules will help ensure that your audience sits up and pays attention.
Here's how to begin a presentation so that your audience really sits up and takes notice.

1. Have somebody else introduce you.  Don't waste time explaining who you are and why you're there. Write a short (100 word) bio and a short statement (50 words) of what you'll be talking about. If you were invited to speak, have whoever invited you read this information to the audience. If you called the meeting yourself, put that information in the invite.
2. Do not tell a "warm-up" joke.  I have no idea how the "warm-up joke" became part of conventional business wisdom. Most of the time, the "joke" consists a weak attempt at situational humor (like "why are these meetings always on Monday?") that merely communicates that you're nervous and unsure of yourself. The rest of the time, the "joke" is a long story with an obvious punch line that tries everyone's patience.
3. Do not begin with "background."  Many presentations begin with a corporate background that's intended to build credibility. (Example: "Our company has 100 years of expertise!") The problem here is that at the start of a presentation nobody cares about your company. You're asking them to translate your background information into something that's meaningful to them and their business. Why should they bother?
4. Open with a startling and relevant fact.  To get an audience focused on what you're going to tell them, you must first break through the "mental noise" that causes their attention to waver. This is best accomplished by a slide showing a fact that is new to the audience and important enough to capture their attention. Build the rest of your presentation to answer the business questions that this initial fact has raised in their minds.

Open with:

"Hi, I'm John Doe from Acme and I've been working in the widget industry for 20 years. And boy, has it been an exciting time (just kidding!) Acme is the industry leader in widgets with over a million satisfied customers!! I'm here today to talk to you about how we can help you save big money on your purchases of high quality widgets."

Or:

"Yes, one million dollars." (Pause.) "That's how much money you're losing every year because of widget failure. Fortunately, there IS a better way and I'm going to explain how you can easily save that money rather than waste it."

Needless to say, the slides in the above example are simplistic. The "better" example could probably be made more visually rich, perhaps with an illustration of money going down a drain (along with the $1m).

What's important here is that you realize why the surprising and relevant first slide is far more likely to capture the audience's attention than the typical rambling intro.

Please note that the "startling and relevant" fact need not be an attempt to generate fear.  The fact could just as easily be about possible opportunity, the achievement of a long held goal, or something else that inspires. As long as it's surprising and relevant, the audience will listen.

Chief Visionary Officers Needed

The Business World Needs Chief Visionary Officers (CVO's) at the CEO, COO, CIO, CSO, CMO, CFO Levels by Terry Stidham

See It, Believe It, Achieve It

One of the greatest traditions in sports will commence shortly after the final horn sounds today and tomorrow and two new college basketball champions are crowned.

The tradition of cutting down the nets has its roots in the famed Indiana state high school tournament that provided the real-life story behind the movie "Hoosiers."

In 1947, as the head coach at North Carolina State, Case introduced net-cutting to college basketball. After his team won the Southern Conference title, Case wanted a souvenir. With no ladder available, the players hoisted Case onto their shoulders and he cut the net while cradled in their grasp.

Visualizing winning the NCAA championship and cutting down the net wasn't enough for former North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano; he took it a step further and actually practiced it. At the first very practice at NC State he told the players that he was going to win a national championship and was going to ‘cut down the nets’ - the pinnacle of his profession. Once a year, Valvano would conduct a practice with no basketballs - nothing except scissors. His players would practice cutting down the nets.

Coach Valvano's belief and enthusiasm was contagious and his players too began to believe that they could actually go all the way and be number 1. It didn’t matter who they faced - they believed that they could win. The Wolfpack put the preparation to good use in 1983 in beating Houston for the national title in one of the greatest upsets in tournament history.

 

Leadership challenge.
Answer these questions:

• Do you have a dream and a vision for your company?
• Do you share that vision with your people?
• Do your people believe that you believe?
• Have you stopped believing in the dream that you had when you took your role?
• Have you stopped believing that you can overcome the challenges you had during the past year?
• How is your vision or lack of vision influencing your team?

What many people don't realize is that we have the power to have our subconscious minds to assist us in getting what we want. The act of visualizing your goals/dreams can make them more achievable.

Why is visualization so powerful?

As you see and feel images that portray your desired outcome, the cognitive dissonance in your brain increases. The increased discomfort sends a message to your brain that you are not giving up on this goal. The brain wants to create balance so it will change directions to figure out ways to make your success happen.

As we routinely and intentionally visualize a desired outcome, and step into the belief that it is possible, our brains increase the motivation to make it happen. We become more and more determined to do whatever it takes to achieve our goals.

In addition to increased motivation, you will begin to get creative ideas that will help you to achieve your goal. You may wake up at 2 a.m. with a brilliant thought, or experience a download of pure genius while in the shower. This is because visualization prompts the brain to "wake up" to messages and resources that it previously shut out. Now that it's well aware of your goal it assists you in becoming more aware and open to finding the answers.

"Your brain wants to solve your problems.  When you are 'stuck' it simply means that your mind isn't open to the solutions.  Visualization releases this resistance and allows the brain to do its job and make you happy.

Decide Exactly What You Want

Your goal must be very clear and specific. Let's say that you want to increase profits by 20%. Don't get caught up in the "how and why," those will come to you. Simply get very clear on your goal and make it believable, yet just out of reach. As you become better at visualization you will naturally set your sights higher.

Choose a Goal that Excites You

Choose at least one goal to hold in your mind's eye as you go through your daily visualization process. How will it feel to increase profits by 20%? How will you know that you have succeeded? Capture a visual of your celebration. Take Coach V's extra step - have a mock celebration and start working like you have already succeeded.

Visualize Daily

See that image of success and allow your mind to wander with the image. Step into the feeling and power of this image; make it very real.

You may remember the Harvard Business School study where recent graduates were surveyed about their goals and then ten years later. The result of visualizing their success? Graduates who had had clear goals in mind were making two to ten times as much money as their classmates.

The old saying goes: "If you can dream it, you can do it."

To have an idea, dream or goal, and then to see how you can make it happen, helps shape your plans and defines your goals more clearly.

Many people, especially athletes and celebrities, have discovered the amazing power of visualization and have used it to enhance their careers and achieve their goals and dreams.

Actor Jim Carrey wrote a check to himself in 1987 in the sum of $10 million. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and added the notation, "for acting services rendered." He visualized it for years, and in 1994, he received $10 million for his role in "Dumb and Dumber."

Oprah Winfrey openly used visualization techniques on her talk show. She often talked about the power of the subconscious mind and goal-focusing techniques. Oprah said, "The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams."

Nobel Laureate Jonas Salk was asked how he went about inventing the polio vaccine. His reply: "I pictured myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to sense what it would be like."

One of the most well-known studies on creative visualization in sports occurred when Russian scientists compared four groups of Olympic athletes in terms of their physical and mental training ratios:

• Group 1 received 100 percent physical training.
• Group 2 received 75 percent physical training and 25 percent mental training.
• Group 3 received 50 percent mental training and 50 percent physical training.
• Group 4 received 75 percent mental training with 25 percent physical training.

Group 4 had the best performance results, indicating that mental training or visualization can have significant measurable effects on biological performance.

Similarly, for many years Russian gymnasts dominated the Olympic Games. The Americans trained hard, but they couldn't compete with the nearly flawless Russians. It wasn't until many years later that the Americans and others discovered the Russians used sports psychologists to help with mental training techniques. They spent a few hours each day visualizing their routines with perfect landings, twists and jumps. Today, most top athletes use the power of visualization to perform at their peak.

People who soar refuse to sit back and wait for things to change. They visualize that they are not quitters. They will not allow circumstances to keep them down. 

Back in 1952, Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. She had to make two attempts before she achieved her goal. On her first try, she quit after swimming 21 1/2 miles and finishing only a half-mile from shore. The reason? It wasn't the freezing cold water, or the fear of the sharks circling around her. Or even her fatigue. She told reporters later it was because she couldn't see the shore through the fog. She had lost sight of her goal.

Two months later, she swam the channel again — this time with a clear mental picture of the shore that lay beyond the fog. She not only became the first woman to swim the channel — she beat the existing world record by two hours.

History teems with tales of experts who were convinced that the ideas, plans and projects of others could never be achieved. But then someone else came along and accomplished those dreams with a can-do attitude.

See It; Believe It, Achieve It

Dare to dream and to have a goal.  Let your mind paint the picture. Get excited about it. Share it with those around you and in your organization. Stay Focused. Make it happen.

Aristotle “First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends: wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”