Jon Cooper: Put some bounce into spring - 8 thoughts to waken you from winter!

This is the time of year when everything starts to awaken, when we start viewing houses, booking holidays, spending money and generally cheering up as the weather moves from ridiculously cold and damp to merely, well, damp.

To help you mark the start of the annual transition from dark and gloomy to bright and booming, I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite pearls of wisdom from the mouths of inspirational leaders past and present.

1 - “If you don’t know every aspect of what you are doing, down to the paper clips, you’re setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.” - Donald Trump

(Donald should know; he’s been bust, in-between making Billionaire status twice)

2 - “I don’t consider myself to be lucky. I think luck is preparation meeting a moment of opportunity.” - Oprah Winfrey

(Winfrey is one of the world’s richest broadcasters, worth easily $2.5 Billion and named America’s most powerful woman)

3 - “There is one rule for industrialists and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.” – Henry Ford

(Credited with the invention of mass production, Ford laid the foundations for every manufacturing business since)

4 - “Keep your business affairs in your own hands. It's the only way to be happy.” – Martha Washington

(The first First Lady of the US controlled 15,000 acres of farmland by the time she married George)

5 - "I am always doing things I can’t do. That’s how I get to do them." - Pablo Picasso

(The Spanish child prodigy learnt to paint, draw and sculpt with equal aplomb)

6 - “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days.” - Zig Ziglar

(Legendary business guru Ziglar practically invented the sound-bite, way before it had a name)

7 - "Seventy percent of success in life is showing up." Woody Allen

(Actor, author, director; Allen’s been showing up and succeeding for over half a century)

8 - “To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.” – Samuel Johnson

(This last thought is from the great Midlands author, whose wise words are as fresh as ever 200 years on)

Jon Cooper is the founder of JupiterDawn.com business consulting, and an Accredited Business Adviser with the IBD group. Exclusive to Blog readers - contact jon@jupiterdawn.com for a free one-hour business mentoring session with Jon, worth £175. Follow Jon @jonnycooper.

Jon Cooper: Jungle frolics to teach us about business

Here is a fabulous little story, both in the sense that it’s a kind of fable, and that it’s quite excellent!

A tiger was stalking through the jungle looking for dinner. He spotted a lone coyote in a clearing and set his sights on it.

As the tiger roared and stomped his way towards his unsuspecting prey, the coyote sensed imminent danger from his feline nemesis and froze for a moment.

Recovering his guile and composure quickly, he trotted over to a nearby pile of bones and exclaimed, “Mmm, what a delicious tiger that was!”

The tiger, shaken by this unexpected revelation, skulked away and vowed to avoid coyote-hunting for evermore.

Meanwhile, a monkey had witnessed the remarkable scene from a tree and skipped off to find the tiger, and offer him a deal.

“Mr Tiger,” he pronounced, “I have some very interesting and valuable information, which I’ll give you in return for a little protection.”

The tiger agreed to watch out for the monkey’s welfare, and was told the whole truth about the coyote and the bones.

Shortly afterwards, the tiger appeared in the clearing with the monkey on his back. (Now there’s a metaphor waiting to happen…)

Mr Coyote, snoozing smugly by the life-saving bones, opened one eye and spotted the peculiar couple, intent as they were on spoiling his afternoon nap. He looked away and declared loudly “I’m starving; why does that lazy monkey take so long to get me another tiger…?”

So what’s the moral in this tale of animal cunning (and, probably, monkey-eating tigers)?

Well, there are several. Firstly, that you can overcome pretty much any obstacle with the right effort. Secondly; in the story, the coyote had to overcome the same challenge not once, but twice. So; never give up, even when a problem refuses to be solved first time around.

He also didn’t exactly work hard to escape a grizzly and macabre death. “Working hard” would have meant running away, and dying exhausted a minute later as the big cat inevitably caught him.

Credit to Mr Coyote; he chose working smart over working hard. Works every time!

Jon Cooper is the founder of JupiterDawn.com business consulting, and an Accredited Business Adviser with the IBD group. Exclusive to Jupiter Dawn Blog readers - contact jon@jupiterdawn.com for a free one-hour business mentoring session with Jon, worth £175. Follow @jonnycooper.

Jon Cooper: 10 reasons why Smoking is like Religion

Bit of a fun blog today, stretching my mind around two of the many human activities I find quite baffling.

Here are my Top Ten Reasons why smoking is like following a religion:

1 – If they didn’t exist, no-one would invent them. Watch Bob Newhart’s legendary Raleigh sketch here, and you’ll get the idea. Then imagine him calling home to try and explain religion to a nation evolved purely on science and facts.

2 – If our kids didn’t learn about them from us, they wouldn’t try them. This is a great argument both for religious education and smoking in homes or close to children to be banned.

3 – Both are harmful to health. Smoking inarguably so; religion stifling to open enquiry and rational thought. The late great Christopher Hitchens referred to religion as a mental illness, and who am I to argue?

4 – There would be fewer premature deaths without either. Sure, we’ve all got to die sometime, but that’s no reason to wantonly leave the party early. Whether you choose to literally expire through self-inflicted respiratory destruction, or get caught up in an act of slaughter in the name-of-all-that’s-holy, either is a tragic waste of precious life.

5 – Both originated from our ignorance. Religions were invented to provide explanations where current knowledge failed. The sun rose – must be a big man upstairs. Washed away in a flood – that’s him again, punishing us for being bad. Smoking was promoted long before medicine caught on to its perils. Hell, we even thought it was good for us!

6 – Now we know better. The corollary to number 5. 21^st Century Medics unanimously agree that smoking is among the easiest and surest of slow suicides yet discovered. Scientists are equally aligned that most things previously given a mystical status are now fully explained by science.

7 – Both are financially ruinous. I know people who spend more on fags than they do on a mortgage payment, for God’s sake. And no-one could make an argument of fiscal responsibility for the Vatican, hoarding looted treasures worth enough in cash terms to rid the world of all known diseases. Probably. If all the churches in the UK were converted into social housing, we’d solve the new homes shortage at a stroke. Maybe.

8 – They waste good people. Smoking, as we’ve agreed, truncates lives and thereby loses any future intellectual and social benefits those people may have yet had to bring. Organised religion is a huge sap of talent. I know several intelligent, intellectual and compassionate priests who could have contributed positively to our society in many other more useful ways.

9. Both are widely practised, yet wrong. The argument that if enough people say or do something, it must be right, has never been disproved more effectively than through smoking and following religion. No-one needs to re-read the list of tobacco-related diseases to know that for sure, and here is a great rationale of why the same applies to religion.

10 – We’d be better off without them. You won’t find many people outside of the tobacco industry and HMRC arguing any positives for smoking. Even the smokers I know agree it’s plain silly. As for religion, John Lennon summed it up as perfectly as a man ever has.

So there you have it. Now you all know that I’m anti-smoking, and an unrelenting apologist for scientific reason!

Jon Cooper: Reading and meeting are the keys to a “Tremendous” life

Like many in business, and with an interest in the success habits of others, I’m an avid reader.

I was reminded again of the power of a well written phrase when I picked up an article celebrating the life of Charles “Tremendous” Jones, an inspirational American speaker, author and life coach who died in 2008. For six decades he toured the world imparting his wisdom and touching the lives of millions of people, but the one thing he’ll be remembered for above all else is a simple 26-word mantra:

“You are the same today as you will be next year except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read.”

It’s a beautifully simplistic view of course, but how true! If you read nothing and meet no-one for 12 months, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be particularly successful.

It’s also a given in that statement that it matters what you read and who you meet. If you read Hello magazine and meet only the postman every day, you’ll get what you get.

In a life devoted to advancing the understanding of business fundamentals, Jones published nine books, all of which have become reference works of their kind. I’m about to re-read my copy of his 2 million selling “Life is Tremendous”, still available online and in bookshops.

Peppered with memorable quotes such as “To know what to do is wisdom. To know how to do it is skill”, his output consistently redefined how we should think about generating lasting wealth and happiness.

Like many business icons, he was a passionate philanthropist, and firmly believed not only that to receive anything you first have to give something, but also that giving is simply returning what you owe anyway. “Everything I have was a gift from someone”, he said, towards the end of his life.

Charlie also said that the secret to success is two words – “I will”, as against “I’ll think about it” or “I might”, or (God forbid) “I can’t”.

This year I’m going to follow Charlie’s “Tremendous” guidance. I WILL meet some more exceptional people, and I WILL read some more amazing books. I hope you do too.

Jon Cooper is the founder of JupiterDawn.com business consulting, and an Accredited Business Adviser with the IBD group. Exclusive to YES members - email jon@jupiterdawn.com for a free one-hour business mentoring session with Jon, worth £175.

Jon Cooper: When opposites attract success

Supercharge your business with the right partner!

I met two halves of a brilliant partnership over breakfast the other day; they’ve built a fantastic business in recycling and waste management, and they have at least three unique products which make their competition look simply, well, rubbish (sorry…).

What fascinated me were the striking differences between the pair of them. One, a natural born leader, with a massive handshake and projecting serious gravitas. He seemed to be holding a crowd effortlessly, and was entertaining them with an amusing anecdote.

His partner was less conspicuous, and spoke quietly yet effectively about what they had achieved, and what they had yet to achieve. He also held the purse strings!

When I got to talk to Mr Big, he made a surprising admission: before he teamed up with his unassuming “other half”, he had been nearly bankrupt, having risked the crown jewels on some brave yet misguided venture.

I realised that here was a classic double act; comparable to the great comedic talents of Laurel and Hardy, Morecombe and Wise or Cannon and Ball (ok, that’s enough), this was a pair who truly sparked off each other, and whose whole was infinitely greater than their two halves.

I suggested that he had found his perfect foil; someone who could distil his crackpot ideas and turn them into a business, and who could temper his wild imaginings for the sake of long-term growth.

He agreed, and added “He doesn’t distil all my ideas; some of them are just too crazy or risky to use, so I think he just kind of ignores them. But when he likes the sound of a plan, he’ll move heaven and earth to make it happen. I guess I’m not so good on the details, and he loves working the small stuff!”

Many entrepreneurs have significant skill gaps when it comes to service delivery, project execution, time management and cash control. It’s just not what they DO!

If that sounds like you, don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re the Bill Gates of your enterprise; the Richard Branson.

When your peculiar talents are forged in white-hot creativity, blue-sky thinking and ultra-positivity, it’s no surprise there isn’t room in your head for the daily logistics.

But like our Mr Big, you’d better find your calming nemesis before you drive your ideas-train right off the rails!

Jon Cooper is the founder of www.JupiterDawn.com. Marketing for your business.

Jon Cooper: Let’s try the most useless opening line EVER!

Don't blow a good campaign with a lousy follow-up!

A friend of mine has a small business selling blinds to homes and workplaces. He said a few weeks ago that he’d had a new colour brochure done and was going to post it out to around 200 of his past customers.

I told him he would multiply his hit-rate maybe 10-fold if he followed up with chaser phone calls, and he set about his campaign.

I met him again over the weekend and asked him how things were going.

“Waste of time!” he blurted. “Something wrong with the post!” he continued. “Hardly anybody got their brochures!”

He’d sent them out as planned, and then starting calling around, using the opening line – “It’s Craig here from Acme Blinds” (names changed to protect the dumb) “Just wondered if you got the brochure we sent out last week”

Hmmm…Craig, you just used the most useless opening line in the history of useless opening lines! Here’s why, mate -

1- The only people who need to know whether a piece of post has arrived or not are customer service researchers at the Royal Mail.

2 – If the customer answers no (he hasn’t received it) he’s either lying to stall any further conversation (most likely), or you have his address wrong. Either way, it leaves you with next-to-no chance of recovering to a selling situation.

3 – If the customer answers yes, where does that leave you? You’ve then got to hit him with another question to move the call forward; usually “so…was it of interest then?” He’s probably already rehearsed the answer to that one, and it doesn’t help.

4 – Asking a “yes-or-no” question as an opening line is, always has been and always will be a pretty lame idea.

“Craig” could have supercharged his chances of success with this kind of pitch –

“…as you’ve been a customer of ours before, I wanted to let you know about a great deal we’ve got on at the moment: [Insert short, sharp, sexy info-hook] I can pop over Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon to work out some prices for you…which would be better?”

And about that brochure – they definitely received it; it had either warmed them up nicely or they’d already thrown it away!

Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper – Leverage your assets for success!

Every successful person knows that they need to make the most of what they have.

Leverage means extracting the true value from all your talents, abilities and relationships to create something of lasting, and growing worth.

Here are some examples of how leverage can help you achieve your goals –

1. Leverage your natural talents. Most people end up doing something it takes them years to learn. Why not identify what you do well naturally, and build a career or business round that instead? If you can draw, play an instrument, or can instinctively counsel and mentor others, look to use that God-given ability before setting out on other, less rewarding endeavours.

2. Leverage human resource by effective delegation. Do you really need to do every aspect of your work personally, or can someone else sweat the small stuff while you focus on the bigger picture?

3. Leverage personal relationships to effect introductions to customers and others needed in your business. Your accountant or lawyer will usually have clients who need your products or services, so ask them for some names and referrals next time you meet.

4. Financial leverage, or gearing, can provide funds for you to invest in the future of your business. Don’t be afraid to borrow against property and other assets if you have a product or service you truly believe in.

5. Enhance your value by leveraging your appeal and your reach. A teacher earns £30,000pa because she only teaches 25 children at a time, whereas a sports star can earn millions by attracting fans from around the world. Think what element of your skills and services would excite the most people, and focus on developing and promoting that aspect of your business.

6. Leverage your marketing power by mastering the internet. You can post your products and services online for next to nothing, but the results can be seen by millions. To ensure global success, engage with the “new media” and make sure you understand how the search engines work.

7. Use your existing customers to spread good news for you. Identify your addicts and leverage their loyalty by communicating regularly with them through email or telephone. As author Robert Allen says, ‘Addicts make the best customers. Addicts buy quickly and more often. Addicts talk to other addicts.’

The key to understanding the importance of leverage is admitting that you can’t do everything yourself. No man, or woman, is an island, although you might get to own one if you apply a little leverage!

Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper – Stay close to your best customers

Look to existing customers for easy sales

Every business wants to attract new customers, and most have a variety of strategies for doing this. Strangely, I find many of my clients are less good at retaining existing customers, a task infinitely cheaper and more rewarding.

In fact, in times where new business is hard to come by, reselling to those you have already sold to might be a genuine survival opportunity.

Here are some ideas for retaining, nurturing and profiting from existing business relationships –

1. Talk to your customers every day. Ask how you can help. Find out what they need.

2. Develop personal friendships with key members of their organisation by finding out what you have in common. You should be familiar with their family situations, their hobbies, interests and life goals if you are to truly connect with them. People buy from people, as the old cliché goes!

3. Offer advice and support in areas where their business is suffering.

4. Think about how you can introduce customers to them. If they prosper, so will your relationship with them.

5. Keep investing in them, via product and service improvements which will benefit them directly.

6. Visit them regularly even if there is no immediate business in prospect.

7. Be willing to introduce your customers to your network of fellow professionals, particularly if they can add strength and stability to your relationship.

8. Use email for monthly newsletters to inform, educate and support their commercial goals. Include one key offer to entice them to do further business with you now.

9. Where appropriate, invite them to join clubs, societies or networking groups of which you are a member. This can be a great way to keep close to your customers and meet them in a relaxed and social atmosphere.

10. Don’t be afraid to ask for their help with your business. “What would you do in my situation…?” will show that you don’t have all the answers, and they will feel flattered you approached them.

Finally, once you are confident that they trust and value the relationship, ask them for referrals and recommendations to other potential customers. If you do all the above well enough, you may never need to look for new customers again!

Jon Cooper is the founder of Jupiter Dawn Consulting. Add any comments or questions to this column online, or by e-mail to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper – When your customers return, will you recognise them?

Post-recession, everything's changed!

I was in the States last week, working on a deal I’ve been trying to land for years. More of that another time, but I also spent some flying hours reading the ever-brilliant Jeffrey Gitomer, an inspirational writer and guru of sales, marketing and networking.

I’ve always found his books and articles hugely entertaining and readable, but his latest newsletter really grabbed my attention.

I’ll paraphrase without plagiarising – for the real thing, visit www.gitomer.com

It’s all about how your customer has changed during, and maybe because of, the recession -

1 – He’s angry that his home and investments went down in value
2 – He won’t be banking, or buying homes, cars or insurance like he did before, and has lost all his respect for previously revered institutions
3 – He’s online, and blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, Linkedining and YouTubing about his buying experiences. If your service sucks, all your other customers will soon know
4 – He’s Googling, not Yellow-Paging, and can do this anywhere, anytime on his mobile device
5 – He’ll buy immediately if you take credit cards online, including after midnight 365 days of the year
6 – By the time he buys, he will have checked your price and facts online in seconds, and read what customers, as well as you, have to say about your company
7 – Because of this, he knows as much about your products as you do, and more about your competitors’ products than you do
8 – He wants you to answer the phone, and is sick of your hold music, your automated options, your offshore so-called “help-desks” and you telling him how important he is while he pays 10p a minute holding on your 0870 customer “service” line
9 – He’s looking for ideas, answers, help and advice, not crummy, transparent special offers
10 – He expects you to be as computer-literate as he is, and will be utterly turned off if you reply to his online query from a Hotmail, msn, AOL, gmail or other proprietary address. Get your own domain name for £7.99pa to meet your customer’s minimum expectations!

As Gitomer wisely adds, we are not going to “recover” from this recession; we are going to “revive and revise”.

Is your business ready?

Jon Cooper is the founder of Jupiter Dawn Consulting. Add any comments or questions to this column online, or by e-mail to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper: Creative thinking wins every time

Build power into your message!

Anyone successful in sales understands the difference between features and benefits, and that customers buy the latter, not the former. Twin turbos (feature) mean you get to work faster (benefit), and 2GB of RAM (feature) means you finish your work sooner (benefit) when you get there! There is also a way of negative selling, highlighting drawbacks instead of benefits. 512MB of RAM probably means you’ll be there all day!

All we really need to be told is how a particular product or service is going to affect our lives.

I heard a lovely little parable the other day which graphically illustrates the power of this approach.

It tells of a young boy, sitting on the steps of Grand Central Station in New York. He has a board next to him with the words “I am blind, please give generously” written on it.

There is a hat in front of him, and a man stops and drops a few coins in it. He then takes the board, turns it round and writes some words on it before replacing it.

The man returns later in the day, to see the boy smiling, his hat overflowing with coins and banknotes.

Hearing the man’s footsteps, the boy asks if it was he who changed his sign earlier. “What did you write?” he asks in amazement.

“I wrote, “today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it”” the man replies.

That simple phrase made people think about the reality of the boy’s condition, and was 100 times more powerful than the statement of his blindness by itself.

It reminded onlookers of the good fortune they enjoyed by being able to appreciate the beauty of the day, and shows that a dry statement of fact will never carry as much impact as a few vivid words which immerse the reader in the world of the writer.

I think there are at least two other messages we can take from that story.

Firstly; there are always people less fortunate than yourself. Take the time to help where you can, and be thankful for what you have.

Secondly; it shows the power of creative thinking. There is always a better way, so be innovative, different, and build power into all your messages.

Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper: Negotiating with difficult people

Learn to make a deal!

“That’s my final offer – it’s not negotiable” might seem like a statement designed to close the door on any further discussion, but in reality it can be just an invitation to do business.

I found myself on the receiving end of a far more difficult and adversarial stance, taken by a landowner I was hoping to deal with earlier this year. He opened the bidding with a simple denial that he could be even slightly interested in selling to us, “at any price”!

In all these situations, it’s important to separate the deal from the emotion, and to be able to interpret what the other person really means.

Successful negotiation skills can be learned, so here are some tips to take with you next time you’re across the table from the intransigents from hell!

1: Connect with their side. What makes them tick, on a business and personal level? Find common ground to build trust and friendship

2: Research recent comparables for this kind of deal, to establish what would be a fair and reasonable outcome

3: Focus on the 20% you agree on, not the 80% you don’t

4: Say “Yes, and…” not “Yes, but…” to make your views an addition to, rather than a contradiction of theirs

5: Ask for their advice; what would they do in your situation?

6: Ask “what makes that fair?” of an unreasonable proposal. Then bring up your standards of fairness, where different

7: Ask “why not…?” before a counter-proposal of yours

8: Discover their bottom-line. Everyone has a minimum they must take away from the table, and you will have a maximum you can give up. You need to know both, and then work within the uncertainty zone in the middle

9: If your offer has been refused, involve them in redrafting the agreement to avoid giving the impression you are simply giving up all your ground

10: Create a side-by-side problem-solving opportunity by using “we” instead of “you” or “I”. Round tables are better than square for the same reasons.

It’s been said that the best deals involve both sides hurting just a little. In reality, a perfect deal happens when everyone is totally happy. Aim for mutual satisfaction, not victory!

Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper: Professional firms should forget about hourly rates

A fair price for a fair job!

I was personally reminded today of the perils of time-costing so beloved of solicitors, accountants and many consultants. I received an unfathomably large bill from a lawyer who did some property work about 3 months ago. I was aghast, but immediately grasped the problem.

He had billed me for what the job was worth to him – the supplier, not what it was worth to me – the customer!

I have approached his firm with a proposal to help him move from hourly billing to value pricing. The proposition that “time is money” is over 250 years old, and attributed to Benjamin Franklin. However, clocks don’t write cheques, and you don’t attract and retain clients by selling hours.

You sell solutions, service and value.

For the benefit of anyone currently charging clients by the hour, here’s why switching to value pricing could transform your business:

1: Pricing a job at outset gets any objections from clients on the table before you start; far better than arguing over the bill at the end!

2: Clients feel special, as you are calculating a bespoke value for their work. Hourly rates, by contrast, are applied at the same level for everyone, irrespective of the value you are adding to their business.

3: Sharing risk by quoting fixed prices projects experience and confidence in your delivery and performance. Clients will feel that you must know you can do the job, otherwise you wouldn’t have committed to it.

4: Clients will appreciate that you are not about to rip them off. Can you imagine how you would feel if an airline charged by the mile for your ticket? Maybe the pilot would deliberately take the long route to rack up the costs!

5: Value pricing forces internal efficiency. Fixing revenue ensures you will delegate and review work flows so you can offer service whilst ensuring you meet your own profitability aspirations.

6: Annual price increases are easier to factor in, as each job is costed individually. No firm likes sending out notices of hourly rate hikes, and no client likes receiving them.

In summary: value pricing encourages trust and nurtures long-term relationships with satisfied clients, leading to mutual profitability and success.

It’s time to ditch the clock and focus on value!

Jon Cooper is the founder of Jupiter Dawn Consulting. Add any comments or questions to this column online, or by e-mail to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper: Is it important…or just urgent?

Proritise for success...

Ever get the feeling you’re overworked, always busy, stressed and yet often seem to accomplish very little?

Do you frequently leave work with a pile of stuff you really should have finished today, still to do tomorrow?

If so, you probably need to examine one of the fundamentals of time management, namely the difference between urgent and important tasks.

Urgent tasks are those which need doing now, whereas important tasks are those on which you need to spend most time.

Here’s a simple 4-box method of analysing your workload and deciding what to do first…and last!

Box 1: Urgent and important: Bills to be paid now, health or family problems, customer complaints; try to look at the root causes of why you are getting dragged into these situations. This will often feel like crisis management and should be pretty rare with proper planning. Finding space in your diary well in advance of deadlines will eliminate the stress from many of these tasks, and move them into Box 3.

Box 2: Urgent but not important: Plan to give these as little time as possible. For instance, answer priority emails and phone calls as briefly as possible, and delegate tasks to others whenever you can. This is the box where most work tends to be concentrated; probably because focussing on a series of trivial actions can seem like you are accomplishing great things.

Box 3: Important but not urgent: These are jobs which must be done, but not necessarily today. Replying to most emails falls into this category, and you should avoid the knee-jerk tendency to answer all your messages right now. Most of your work should be concentrated here in Box 3, meaning you get through lots of essential tasks, without the pressure of a deadline.

Box 4: Neither important nor urgent. These are jobs which you really should be delegating, or simply leaving undone. You might find that if you leave things to simmer here for a while, they will either slip into Box 2, or become irrelevant. Surfing the internet for nothing in particular is a classic time-hungry example of a Box 4 task.

Thinking about what you REALLY need to be doing, and when, truly can make a difference in your personal effectiveness, wealth and happiness.

Jon Cooper is the founder of Jupiter Dawn Consulting. Add any comments or questions to this column online, or by e-mail to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper: Getting past the gatekeeper

Don't fall at the first fence!

So, you’ve got a brilliant product or service which blows all your competitors out of the water. Not only that, but you’ve priced it so well that your customers are never going to say no! If only you could get to them to tell them about it…

I’ve recently been working with a large organisation which sells vending machines to businesses throughout the UK. They were concerned that their telesales team had recently been connecting to decision makers less and less frequently.

As anyone who’s ever tried to sell by phone will know, many of your potential customers are surrounded by a human firewall, a virtual moat manned by PAs and receptionists charged with one simple task – to protect their executives from the white noise of uninvited sales calls.

Here’s a plan we put together, designed to overcome this perennial dilemma.

1: Call the company, and ask for the sales department, rather than the named decision maker. You will always be put through. Aim: Avoid immediate rebuttal from gatekeeper.

2: Explain to the salesperson that you’re in sales, just like they are, and you’d appreciate a little help. Aim: Get them to identify with you and open up.

3: Ask them who they currently use for supply of your product or service, and how they feel about that current supplier. Aim: Research the company’s need for change.

4: Ask who the decision maker would be where your product or service is concerned. Always ask for their direct extension number, so you “don’t have to bother them again” Aim: Enable contact with your buyer without risk of being blocked at the switchboard.

5: Contact the decision maker directly at their desk and mention your previous conversation with sales, where they suggested a need for your product or service. Aim: Create a perceived referral from someone else in the company.

We found that this approach increased direct conversations with decision makers by over 40%, and produced a call-to-appointment ratio 32% higher over the next quarter.

Of course, any aspirations to those kinds of improvements assume that your telesales personnel already display the essential attributes of honesty, integrity, credibility and humour, through a gentle yet persuasive phone manner.

Jon Cooper is the founder of Jupiter Dawn Consulting. Add any comments or questions online, or by e-mail to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Masterminding for success

Jon Cooper - Mastermind Groups ensure you are not alone.

Life in business is necessarily tough; if it wasn’t, everyone would be doing it!

And yet one of the biggest challenges to success often comes from your own isolation as the boss. Quite simply, you have no-one to discuss ideas and voice concerns with. In that environment, judgement and motivation can desert you just when you need it most.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could meet regularly with a group of like-minded individuals, who could share experiences, skills and support?

This is the basis of Mastermind Groups, a concept first penned by the legendary Napoleon Hill in 1937.

He said that "No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind [the master mind]."

There are such groups now across the globe, spanning every sector of commerce and human interests.

One of my clients runs a successful Financial Advice firm, and has put together his own Mastermind Group to develop and promote industry best practice for its five members. This is what he does to make it work –

1: Meets regularly, every week or month.
2: Selects members with similar success and experience levels.
3: Ensures members are not direct competitors who may not be comfortable opening up to the Group.
4: Insists on commitment to meeting schedules and effective participation.
5: Develops a spirit of harmony, trust and respect. Eliminates argument; instead fosters constructive discussion.
6: Agrees a Group objective that this year is going to be the best ever for all members.
7: Accepts and gives honest feedback on himself and others.
8: Encourages each member to make his or her own plan, with defined goals for which the Group then holds them accountable.
9: Brings in guest speakers to inspire and educate.
10: Provides an immediate and perpetual support network.

The way to set up your own Mastermind Group is simple; pick up the phone to half-a-dozen or so of your peers and invite them to join with you.

Incidentally, the concept works equally well if you are work colleagues employed by an organisation, or if you want to form a group of participants in your sport, leisure or recreational activity.

Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper: Top ten biggest sales mistakes.

Easy ways to ruin a sale.

As you read this, salespeople around world are doubtless hard at work inventing
new methods of screwing up their chances of success. To give them a helping
hand, here are my top ten ways to lose a sale!
1: Talk about yourself. No prospect wants you to listen to his story, and in any
case, you are far more interesting than he is.
2: Talk technical. Make sure you baffle them with enough confusing jargon, so
they have to buy just to find out what you were on about.
3: Let the customer take control. You need them to call the shots. Anyway, it’s
only polite, as they’re the ones paying your wages.
4: Make sure you recite your canned pitch. Everyone loves being assaulted with
a heavy sales spiel.
5: Insist they hear all the features of your product. Don’t bother talking benefits;
how should you know how they’re going to use your stuff anyway? They’ll have
plenty of time to work that out for themselves once they’re bought it.
6: Don’t worry about asking for the sale; after all, nobody ever makes decisions
on the day, so just assume they’re going to get at least three more quotes and
then want to think about it, like all the others.
7: Don’t waste time chasing prospects. They’ll always come back to you if you’ve
done your job, right? If they don’t, it just means they were wasting your time all
along.
8: Aim your pitch at the lowest-ranking employee. Get him excited and he’ll tell
his boss, who’ll tell his boss, and so on, until your sparkling message reaches
the actual decision-maker.
9: Don’t bother checking early on if they need or want your product. Just hit
them with your standard pitch, and they’ll sure as heck want it by the time
you’ve finished.
10: Love ‘em and leave ‘em. Your job is to make the sale, not deliver the goods.
The only reason they want to speak to you later is to complain about something,
so leave all that to Customer Service. Wouldn’t be so bad if they rang you with a
recommendation or referral every now and again, but of course; they never do.
Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either
adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Sleep your way to the top!

Jon Cooper - More sleep the secret to success?
One of my colleagues regularly mentions the fact that he gets by on 5 hours sleep a night.
In fact, his tone often suggests that the rest of us are quite lazy and unproductive,
spending 50% more of our lives lying down with our eyes shut.
However, as he’s recently been known to “drop the ball” at business meetings, and is also
suffering a divorce and health problems, I thought I’d take a look at the whole issue of
optimum sleep –
1: Canadian research suggests that seventeen hours awake can lead to a decrease in
performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%, which is higher than the drinkdrive
limit in some countries.
2: Make sure your bedroom is the coolest room in the house (unless you have a walk-in
freezer). Hot summer nights can cause restless sleep, indicating your body’s need to cool
down before nodding off.
3: If you fall asleep “as soon as your head hits the pillow”, you’re probably over-tired. 10
to 15 minutes is nearer the natural pace for your body to cycle between awake and asleep.
4: Avoid alcohol just before bed. You may feel like it helps you sleep, but it will not be very
deep or restful slumber.
5: Jump out of bed quickly as soon as you awake, for maximum and enduring alertness
throughout the day.
6: Enhance your energy levels whilst awake by starting the day with a high-protein
breakfast, such as eggs and bacon, or specialist protein shakes. Minimise carbs, which can
leave you feeling drowsy through the morning.
7: If you don’t sleep enough at night, a “power-nap” really can work. Lock your office door,
close the blinds and turn off the lights. Focus on any problems at hand; then take a short
nap on a couch. When you awake, you will usually have all the answers you need.
8: 8 hours sleep is considered ideal by most experts, although this can drop to 6 hours for
those over 65.
One of the reasons more of us are sleeping less than ever before is the 24-hour
accessibility of the internet, so if you’re reading this online after midnight; get to bed now!
Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either
adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Jon Cooper - Avoid Result-Free Meetings

Supercharge your business gatherings

Have you ever been in a meeting and wondered “what am I doing here?”, or worse still, “what is this for…why is anyone here?”?

If you have, chances are you will have been a participant in one of those all-too-common business gatherings which produce no useful outcome: the Result-Free Meeting.

Here are some tips to add power to your powwows and get-up-and-go to your get-togethers!

1: Clarify the purpose of the meeting to all attendees. Make it clear what needs to be achieved and why.

2: Produce an agenda of no more than 5 items, and circulate to all invitees at least 48 hours in advance. This should allocate time to each item, and should not include an “Any other business” line. AOB encourages waffle, and distracts from any clear outcome you are trying to achieve.

3: Set personal objectives for the meeting beforehand. These need not be openly shared, but knowing what you need to achieve from the event will help to focus your input.

4: Don’t invite more than 5 people, plus you. Research shows that meeting effectiveness declines exponentially in inverse proportion to the number of attendees over six.

5: Encourage commitment by setting preparation tasks for your colleagues. They will be much more likely to support your objectives if they have already spent time working towards them beforehand.

6: Take minutes; preferably on a template, by hand or electronically. Arguing later over who said what, and over what was decided, is almost worse than not having a meeting at all.

7: Agree action points for every delegate to achieve following the meeting, and circulate to all within 48 hours.

8: Set a date for the next meeting, if any.

9: Critique effectiveness as a group before disbanding. Discuss what went well, and what could be improved next time you need to meet.

10: Don’t meet if a conference call, email, memo or intranet posting will do the job just as well. Your group will respond best when you impose on the smallest amount of their time, plus they will respect meetings more when they know you only call them when really necessary.

Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Is your address book keeping you broke?

Choose your friends carefully!

Last week I decided to “cancel” a friendship I had with a guy (let’s call him Gordon,
for no particular reason) who, over the 12 years I’d known him, had always seemed
to be in a parlous financial state, despite having a succession of reasonably paid sales
jobs.
Worse, he perpetually blamed the Government, the tax-man, his divorce and recently
the economic meltdown for his feeble position and lack of tangible success.
Sometimes, if my day hadn’t quite gone according to plan, I’d found it comforting, in
a strange kind of way, to hang out with someone else whose day, year or entire life
was going even worse.
Problem was, allowing him to sympathise over my occasional disappointments had
saved me the trouble of doing anything constructive to stop the same things
happening again. Even worse, after a half-hour of his desolate diatribes, I would even
find myself starting to buy into his thinking!
Believing as I do that our success is based almost entirely on the attitudes and
behaviours of the people around us, Gordon just had to go.
Inspired by that experience, I’m now spring-cleaning and de-cluttering my whole
address book, exterminating any other Gordons who may be lurking in there
masquerading as worthwhile associates. Try it for yourself, using these 3 simple
criteria –
1: How are they fixed financially? It’s a spooky mathematical reality that if you take
the five people closest to you, add up their salary and divide by five, you’ll have your
annual earnings potential. Don’t tolerate anyone who drags down your average.
2: How much value can they bring to your life? Fruitful and rewarding associations
are about a fair exchange of value, with each party adding to the other’s success. If
it’s all their way, bin them!
3: Do they move in circles you’d like to penetrate? If they operate at a lower level
than you do and never venture out of their discomfort zones, they’re unlikely to be
capable of improving your life.
After you’ve ruthlessly culled your contact list, get to work on those you decided to
keep, and resolve to spend a lot more time with them. That shouldn’t be difficult if
you’ve done it properly; because there won’t be too many names left…
Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by either adding a
comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com

Lessons from a 'Nam Vet'

The Stockdale paradox is a recipe for long-term survival

I’ve been reading an inspirational biography by Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the
highest ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war
camp during the height of the Vietnam War.
He was tortured repeatedly during his 8-year incarceration, yet maintained the
respect of the military prisoners still under his command, whilst trying to ensure
that the highest number of them survived their unthinkable ordeal.
Stockdale established rules allowing his men to reveal certain information after a
given level of torture, understanding that no-one can withstand pain indefinitely.
He inflicted self-injury with stools and razors, so that his captors couldn’t film him
on video to demonstrate their responsible custody to the outside world.
Reading the book, I was overwhelmed with the sense of desperation and isolation
which he and his soldiers must have felt, and astonished that he was able to keep
his spirits high, and to refuse to be broken.
Interviewed recently, he was asked how he dealt with such incredible hardship, and
more poignantly with not knowing how, when or even if it would all end.
He replied that he never lost faith in the end of the story. He believed that,
eventually, he would be released and be reunited with his family.
He was then asked who didn’t make it. “The optimists”, he replied, coining at once
the concept now known as the Stockdale Paradox.
What he meant was that “those who told themselves, ‘We’ll be home by Christmas’,
were disappointed when Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then
they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter
would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they
died of a broken heart.”
Stockdale finished his interview with a stunningly concise summary of his survival
strategy, and one which I’m sure would be a useful edict with which to get through
the albeit less life-threatening corporate torture wrought by these troubled
economic times.
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never
afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current
reality, whatever they might be.”
Respect to you, Admiral.
Have a question you'd like Jon Cooper to address? You can submit it by
either adding a comment to this post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com