Please excuse the title, I’m writing this just after Halloween... Most companies have lots of old customers – not they are actually ‘old’, but simply companies that haven’t done business with you for a very long time. Why they stopped doing business with you is in most cases a mystery. Perhaps a sales rep annoyed them at some [point, or an order wa...
Read MoreAlmost everyone is familiar with the question – “Would you like Fries with that?” Apart from being a well worn meme, it’s also one of the most profitable questions ever asked. To get your client to a purchase commitment, a finite expense has been incurred so any gross margin from the sale created by Up-selling goes right to the bottom line.
Read MoreClick image to play The way bees operate in their hive can provide an useful lesson that we should think about in our businesses. And while we are talking about bees: World Bee Day is celebrated on 20 May each year (since 2017) in honour of Anton Jansa who was born on that date in 1734 and who is recognized as a pioneering beekeeper. World Bee Day...
Read MoreI was invited to observe a meeting with a client last week. Ten of the invitees arrived on time but the meeting didn’t start on time because a couple of ‘key’ people were missing. And then, when it finally got underway, I realized that most of the attendees weren’t sure what the meeting was all about. As the conversation progressed, one or two peo...
Read MoreAn area that people get wrong all the time is pricing. Some people price high based on the profits they hope to achieve. Some base it on some sort of average industry “cost plus” rule. Some are afraid to charge too much. Still others simply add a few percent to last year’s price. So before you set your next price or quote your next deal here are A...
Read MoreAt a recent event organized by Peter Jaskiewicz at University of Ottawa and the Ontario CPA, the above participants each weighed in on a family business case study to provide succession advice based on their expertise. And while each piece of advice was excellent, I couldn’t help thinking about the old adage of ‘when you have a hammer – everythin...
Read MoreYou have at least 10 projects sitting on your to-do list grinding away at you every day. Whatever you do, you feel you should be doing something else instead. So, which one should you do next? There are only so many hours in a day, only so many people to help you get things done, and yet so much to do. A question that crops up regularly from clie...
Read MoreIf you are in business, you have stakeholders. They are all the people that have an interest in what you are doing or could be affected by what you are doing. At a recent Stakeholder Management workshop that I was running we were wrapping up and it was question time. There is always some bright spark that asks the question that attempts to cram a...
Read MoreI was talking with one of our fast-growing coaching clients the other day. Inevitably, with growth comes a little pain. The current pain for this CEO was that he had to let go of some control, and hand more responsibility to his staff so that he could spend less time in the business and more time on the business. It's not an unusual situation.
Read MoreThirty years ago today, I was travelling along the main street in Bar-le-Duc in North-eastern France in a small Renault 4 driven by a rather large Corsican. I remember the car leant slightly to the left with the distribution of weight. I was working in France at the time and still learning French and developing a strange mix of accents: fast Parisi...
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