I am not the originator of this list, but found it instructive as to the success and failure of companies and success. 1. A lost customer means lost feedback and the opportunity to improve. 2. A lost customer means lost sales and revenue that is lost forever! 3. A lost customer causes asking, "Why didn’t we recognize the problem before losing them?" 4. A lost customer means having lost a testimonial to use in selling to others. 5. A lost customer opens us up to potentially negative word-of-mouth that might affect our reputation with prospects, customers, suppliers and staff. 6. A lost customer means having lost all their possible future referrals. 7. A lost customer has a negative impact on the confidence of our entire staff. 8. A lost customer increases the urgency to prospect for new customers (and often at the worst time). 9. A lost customer and the resulting reduced revenue can slow or even halt plans to grow. 10. A lost customer means less money available for payroll, commissions and benefits for the work force. 11. A lost customer can demoralize the sales and marketing staff. 12. A lost customer may become an unexpected opportunity for the competition. 13. A lost customer means a distraction from other important issues. 14. A reputation for losing customers can hang a black cloud over the ability to find and hire the right personnel. 15. A lost customer can be the beginning of a reputation for losing customers that hangs like a black cloud over the ability to find and hire the right personnel. 16. A lost customer can degrade an image and reputation in the marketplace. 17. A lost customer forces undertaking tasks and changes that weren’t wanted or planned. 18. A lost customer can have a damaging impact on our sales projections, cash flow, receivables, and payables. 19. A lost customer can cut volume and prohibit meeting buying commitments with suppliers and vendors. 20. A lost customer can trigger the need to spend un-budgeted funds on marketing, research, new customer acquisition, etc. 21. A lost customer can disrupt inventory levels, inventory investments, ordering procedures and reorder frequency. 22. A lost customer may cause the need to refocus priorities and go in a totally different direction. 23. A lost customer can cause the need to focus attention on poor performance rather than growth opportunities. 24. A lost customer can cause doubt about the validity of service fulfillment and pricing strategies. 25. A lost customer causes hard work in an attempt to regain the business. 26. A lost customer can cause overreacting and even panic when confronted with similar situations with existing customers in the future. 27. A lost customer can discourage a prospective salesperson from ever trying the job. 28. A lost customer can lead to an accounting, collection or legal nightmare. 29. A lost customer can devalue the worth and saleability of a business. I did not create this list, I don’t know its origin, but I find the value in the message, and I hope you do to. Related Posts:The 29 Costly Implications of Losing CustomersTraining Needs 4: Career DevelopmentSales AnalyticsTraining Vision 3: What Are Your Best Customers Planning?Building a Corporate University: Obtaining Buy-in

There are three (3) things that are always included in the successful conclusion to a successful goal cycle. They are: commitment, completion and closure. Commitment. Unless the person making the goal is committed to working on and towards a particular goal, it is at best nothing more than a wish. Commitment is the spark that ignites the fire that moves a person. Completion. What is the use of working a on goal and stop when you are just feet from the finish line. Working towards 80-90 or even 95% of the objective is nothing more than falling short. We need to focus on completing the goal! 100% is only what can be acceptable. Closure. When you first establish a goal, you set your destination. Our commitment to working on the goal is our vehicle that will take us towards that horizon. Completion is insuring that our vehicle has sufficient gas to reach our destination. Closure is our reviewing our goal and enjoying the achievement that we have done. By employing the 3 C’s in every goal situation, we insure that our overall plan and actions are successful and our long-term direction is still where we are seeking. Related Posts:The Value of Writing Down Goals9 Motivational Quotes About GoalsPowerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps!Realizing the Full Potential of Your GoalEngaging Participants 6: Development

Every single interaction is an opportunity to do marketing, not a chance to cut costs. Related Posts:Building a Corporate University: ResourcesSales Performance AnalysisBuilding a Corporate University: ReinventionWhich Social Media Website Do Digitals Prefer Most and Why?Building a Corporate University: Marketing and Promotion

If you’re like most, you have probably made a few resolutions for the upcoming year. And if you’re like most, you’re probably wondering what went wrong with all those wonderful intentions. You may be asking yourself, ‘Why can’t I stick to a diet,’ or ‘I just don’t understand it; I promised myself that I’d go to the gym,’ or "Why am I so weak." It seems like such a puzzle to try to figure out why all of this different resolutions seemed to fail. Unfortunately, despite our best intentions, the ability to change our habits is only as good as your motivation to start to change yourself. The main reason for failing to fulfill these objectives is an inability to realize the full benefit of a goal. When trying to get off the couch to go for a run, you may find it difficult and start to rationalize with yourself that, "loosing an extra 10 pounds won’t be that big of a difference," or say ‘I am fine with my appearance just the way I am.’ Due to our inability to realize the full potential of our goal, we ultimately give up and fail. The same is true for goals in our professional life. Because we fail to realize the full potential of a goal in our professional life, we simple let opportunities fall by the way side. However, with the help of Bryant Nielson and ‘Lengthen your Stride’ you will be able to better realize your long-term personal and professional goals by realizing your full potential. After realizing the full potential of all your goals, you will be increasingly motivated and extremely more likely to complete your goals and become more of a success in both personal and professional avenues of your life. Related Posts:Powerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps!The Value of Writing Down Goals9 Motivational Quotes About GoalsUsing Simulations in Corporate Training7-Steps to Creating a Coaching and Mentoring Program Four: Measurement

One of the most important aspects to the process of goal settings is to first establish and define your goal. The truth of this evident in a statement made by Lee Iacocca: "The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen." For one reason or another, when we write something down it seems to be more permanent. It is rarely forgotten and we are constantly reminded of it. To help illustrate this, think about why we write down a grocery list every week. We do this so nothing is forgotten or skipped over. We make this list so every necessary item and component is purchased. If you have ever gone grocery shopping without a list, you know how confusing of an experience it can be. You seem to be all over the store, only to get home and realize things you had forgotten to buy. It is quite one thing to say you want to accomplish something, but without a clear and defined plan; few goal settings are rarely accomplished. It is too easy to get sidetracked without a plan to keep you on the path to your goal. The first step in your goal settings plan to set a goal is to write the plan! Commit the goal and yourself to paper and you are more invested in the process and therefore much more likely to succeed. Related Posts:Powerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps!3 C’s for SuccessRealizing the Full Potential of Your Goal7-Steps to Creating a Mentor / Coaching Program - Step One: What Are Your Goals?9 Motivational Quotes About Goals

Napoleon Hill "A goal is a dream with a deadline." Zig Ziglar "Goals are dreams we convert to plans and take action to fulfill." Unknown author "Goals that are not written down are just wishes." Jim Rohn "Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them." Mark Victor Hansen "Big goals get big results. No goals get no results or somebody else’s results." Seneca "If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable." Norman Vincent Peale "All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do." Author unknown "If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time." Milton Berle "I’d rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I’d rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has-been was once an are." Related Posts:Realizing the Full Potential of Your GoalPowerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps!Tithing TimeThe Value of Writing Down Goals7-Steps to Creating a Mentor / Coaching Program - Step One: What Are Your Goals?

We are all looking for more time. We all claim that there is insufficient time in our days to accomplish anything, let alone something we actually want to accomplish. My solution to this is the biblical concept of tithing. Take 10 percent of anything you are currently doing and dedicate it towards your real goals, and aspirations. If you are watching 3 hours of television a day, then take 30 minutes for yourself and your dreams. You still get 2 1/2 hours of television but you also get 30 minutes closer to achieving your dreams. That 30 minutes a day, over the course of a year is equal to 5.21 weeks of work. What could you accomplish if you had over 5 weeks of work to concentrate on a project? What could you achieve with that amount of time dedicated to your dreams. Google allow for their people to work 1/2 of a day per week on projects that are interesting to them. Many of their ‘new’ products are directly related to that freedom of ideas, expression and the necessary time to develop those ideas. Tithing of time, allow for you to accomplish so much with nominal loss of those habits we have created over a life time. So, what excuse do you have about not having sufficient time to work on your goals? Related Posts:9 Motivational Quotes About GoalsPowerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps!7-Steps to Creating a Mentor / Coaching Program - Step One: What Are Your Goals?Dare to be DifferentCreating Your Training Vision 2011: Organizational Strategy

I recently was in the grocery store.  Looking for my favorite coffee.  When I found the isle I was presented with a wall of choices.  38 different varieties of coffee were on the racks with another set of choices as to the volume of coffee.  In a simple walk through the rest of the store, I began to realize that consumers are presented with a Tsunami of choices in all categories. We all become overwhelmed with these choices and often then gravitate to the best known brand or make some other criteria that will provide the consumer with a method to make their purchase.  The lack of true analysis based on the choices translates into consumers sometimes buying the product that is not the highest quality or the best product, but the product that they know best. This lesson of choice is important to each of us individually or as a corporation.  When given a choice, why would a consumer seek to choose you?  What makes you remarkable?  Are you packaged differently so that you and your product stand out?  What features of your product is extraordinary?  In service industries, it is close to impossible to change our products.  But our presentation of our products can provide the differentiation that will allow for us to stand out.  Design or experience or features, they all are ways to different products.   Apple computers uses a design and simplicity as the hallmark of their product.  They have the most elegant designs and the simplicity of their user interface is years ahead of the competition’s.   Bank of New York has long emphasized the ‘history’ and ‘experience’ of the bank and its bankers as their distinguishing marks.  They don’t sell checking or saving accounts, they sell the value of their advise in the financial arena.  It is what sets them apart.  Trader Joe’s, a grocery store, long ago determined that they could provide high quality private label products to their consumers.  They choose to eliminate the big national brands in lieu of their own labeled products.  Many grocery stores do this also, but Trader Joe’s did it with panache, a unique sales experience, and the quality of their products made them highly successful. Commidization of products and services can negatively impact many industries and products.  If they fail to make their products and services extraordinary, they will die.   What can you do to set yourself apart in this tsunami of choices? Related Posts:Account PlanningSales AnalyticsThe Value of Writing Down GoalsSales ForecastingBuilding Long-Term Relationships

I believe it is possible for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. For me, the difference between an "ordinary" and an "extraordinary" person is not the title that person might have, but what they do to make the world a better place for us all. Related Posts:Ordinary EffortsTraining Alchemy: How the Military Takes Ordinary to ExtraordinaryFinding Leadership Amidst ChaosDare to be DifferentRelevance of Learning versus Relevance of Training and Development

The U.S. Military uses typical training techniques and modifies their delivery in order to turn an ordinary person into an extraordinary leader. When we think of military training, sometimes we think of a drill sergeant screaming in the face of a new recruit. Although this does happen, the branches of the U.S. Military utilize some of the same techniques we use in corporate training - except the delivery is different. This delivery creates the extraordinary members of the U.S. military. Many corporate organizations refer to their new hire programs as "boot camps" - it’s an appropriate nickname, but in theory only. A military boot camp, as well as a corporate one, uses accelerated learning techniques. A great deal of knowledge is crunched into a short period of time, but that’s where the similarities end. Military boot camps use shock value and "break down" techniques as a way to mold a recruit into someone else, while leaving the best characteristics of the person intact. According to one former member of the U.S. Navy, the boot camp formula is break down, instruction, and reinforcement - both negative and positive. The other element of training is adaptation - the military consistently adapts the training recruits receive in step with changes in the world. Perhaps that’s a page corporate training can take to heart. There is a classroom element to military training in addition to simulation. In the classroom, recruits learn decision making, change management, and even history. The idea behind formal classrooms is to enforce decision making after knowledge. In fact, recruits are subjected to decision making simulations in which they must make the decision within a given time limit, taking into account what they already know, the needs of the team, and the needs of the individual. If we civilians look at this, we can see that knowledge is viewed as a potential weapon - another aspect that corporate training departments could put into use. Decision making is also enforced with trial and error through simulation. The drill sergeant in boot camp, for example, takes recruits through an obstacle course to explain it and set expectations. It’s then up to the recruits to figure out how to overcome their obstacles - and failure may occur more than once. As a person makes his or her way through the ranks, commanding officers look for natural leaders and leaders that step up to say "I’m capable". Leadership training is conducted in various combination’s, including basic, tactical, and developmental. All military training comes with a combination of lecture, proficiency testing, simulation, and evaluation. Many of these techniques are used in corporate environments, but how does the military produce such extraordinary members? Consider the method in which training is delivered - through a shock and break down technique. Participants are given an explanation of what can happen to them in the real world if they don’t follow particular procedures - and punishments for being caught outside of procedures in training. Boot camp training adapts to constantly changing world conditions - do we adapt our training regularly as our businesses change? Decision making is a great skill, but the military puts it into a time frame - you must make a decision, hopefully the right one, within a very short time period. Only if you prove your willingness and ability to lead are you tapped for advanced leadership study. The U.S. military takes normal training tactics and adapts them in order to squeeze out a person’s marginal qualities and leave the person’s best characteristics. Through constant simulation, evaluation, and testing, the military takes people and turns them into extraordinary soldiers - and leaders. Related Posts:Using Simulations in Corporate TrainingBenefits of Using SimulationsSimulation ComponentsSimulations EvaluationDecision Making Strategies