In which we consider the advantages of introducing ourselves as our benefit rather than as our job description.
Each time I sat in his office, his small bronzed desk plaque hissed at me, “Do not confuse effort with results.” 30 inches distant, securely bolted, passive, dead center, front. Whatever the topic, the plaque stripped the varnish away. “Let’s look… at what you’ve d o n e.”
Segue to… a business gathering. You’re mingling with others. Someone turns to you and says, “Hello, I’m Fred Smith from Amoximated Company. What do you do?” You don’t know Fred, you don’t know what’s important to him or what he’s listening for. How do you respond?
With a result. The desk plaque’s legacy. You could say:
(1) “Hello. Fred, I’m a senior relationship manageer at ABC Company based here in the city. I manage our major account relationships in the consumer packaging industry. I work with a team of people who bring expertise from several important financial and technical disciplines to help our clients manufacture more efficiently.”
or..
(2) “Hello, Fred. I work at ABC Company. I help consumer packaging companies reduce manufacturing costs five to ten percent.
The first one is an “EFFORT” description — a job title and job description, bland, passive, pablum. The second one is a RESULT – crisp, unapologetic, provocative. If Fred wants more discussion, the starting line is bold and clear. He’s likely to ask, “How do you do that?”
Listen, next time you’re mixing with others. What do you hear? Effort or results? “I sell office equipment. I’m a corporate banker. I’m an asset manager. I sell ball bearings. I’m a senior accountant at Knight and Day.” It’s all “effort” and job description.
To stand out, focus on your results. The benefit statements of you. And, if you can’t prove quantitative results, focus on how you help others achieve them. For example: The qualitative result, “I help business owners operate their companies more efficiently,” is stronger than the job description, “I’m a branch manager” or “I’m a Business Banker.”
Do not confuse them with your effort or your job title. Focus on your results.
by Nick Miller of Clarity Advantage
by Kent Blumberg
Not every client is your ideal client. In fact, some clients are downright toxic. They sap your energy, undermine your brand, waste your time, keep you too busy to take on better clients, send your staff running for the hills and send you running for the Valium. In spite of the revenue toxic clients may bring in, I can think of at least nine reasons to fire them.
- The client acts unethically, or demands unethical behavior on your part. All we have, in the end, is our reputation – with others and with ourselves. When we act out of alignment with our values and ethics, or support those who do so, we are out of integrity. When we are out of integrity, we are less effective and more stressed.
- You don’t like the client. This one doesn’t show up on most lists like this, but it’s crucial to me. One of the advantages of owning my own business is that I can choose with whom I will do business. I don’t have to work with a jerk if I don’t want to. Why give up that hard-won freedom? Why spend time with a client I don’t like?
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Here are five pointers picked up from discussions with firm leaders and advisers about the always-sensitive “dance” of how and how much to raise rates:
1. Do the math. Your costs may have risen this year, as the costs of a business often do: salaries, facilities, travel, equipment, software upgrades—all of those expenses involved in running a business have probably gone up. An overall assessment of higher costs can help your firm get a sense of how much firm revenue needs to increase to cover these costs.
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By O. Max Gardner III
Originally published at: http://bit.ly/cceEC6
Dalton Camp proclaimed [Ed.: in Canada's defunct Saturday Night Magazine] several years ago that “having lost its value, money may no longer be the root of all evil; credit having taken its place.” This statement demonstrates the paradox of modern day Christianity and debt—should the Christian reaction be one of condemnation or one of compassion. Since many recent respected studies have shown that the average American family is only three weeks away from personal bankruptcy, and since Congress is on the verge of passing legislation that will deny bankruptcy relief to hundreds of thousands of American families, it is time to revisit what the Bible teaches us about debt.
The Bible makes it clear that people are generally expected to pay their debts. Leviticus 25:39. No one in support of or in opposition to the Bankruptcy Reform Bill presently before Congress has advanced any argument against this general proposition. However, this moral and legal obligation to pay just debts must be balanced by such considerations as the need for compassion and the call to cancel debts at periodic intervals. The Biblical basis for such considerations is based on the sabbatical and Jubilee years. The secular basis arises out of the Constitutional of Congress to enact uniform laws allowing businesses and consumers to cancel and to restructure debt obligations. This Biblical support for the legal right to cancel debt is enforced by the even stronger Biblical doctrine that prohibited interest of any amount rather than just usury or excessive interest.
Within the areas of economic justice and stability, the Old Testament is replete with examples of compassionate treatment of the poor, and with preservation of the family unit. These goals were superior to the material concerns of repayment of debt. For instance
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