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Don’t Let the Holidays Take Your Eye Off the Ball

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 18:00:37 +0000

You had some good momentum going toward the end of the year. But as the Holidays began to approach, you got increasingly put off with “call me after the Holidays,” or “I’ll be out of town ‘til after the first of the year.” Projects you’ve been working on all year have been put on hold. You yourself have taken a break and may have lost track of where you were with this person and that project. This time of year can be downright frustrating and confusing!

The new year seems to favor new projects. Who wants to go back and rehash old ones? You might say, “Hey, if they didn’t get closed by year end, it seems futile to resurrect them now.” We have faced this “holiday” problem for years. And yes, it’s always better to finish out your initiatives before the end of the year. We all feel the pressure to do so. But with so many other folks trying to complete their projects at the same time, the competition itself can put a drag on completion and cause you to miss that all important “holiday” deadline.

Here are some ways we have found to save the day and remove a little of the pressure, guilt, and frustration the Holidays can bring:

Calendar. Check your calendar for any meetings you may have had in October, November, and December. Re-acquaint yourself with the attendees, the goals for those meetings and the follow ups you and others have committed to. Reschedule with those folks for follow-ups now.
Call Log. A quick review of your call log will remind you of the conversations you had at year end. You will be able to quickly identify the ones that you still need to bring to a conclusion. Make a list and prioritize.
Email. We like to review our sent items, the ones that have yet to respond, or the ones where we were the last message in the chain. Schedule some time to piggy back on those sent items, include the chain of correspondence, and resume the discussion.
Make Appointments. After reviewing you calendars, calls and emails, and setting priorities, reach out early to set up appointments even if they are a month away. Just knowing you have taken action will relieve your anxiety.
Set Deadlines. Try to get all of last quarter’s business completed, cleared, or resolved by the end of the first quarter of the new year. You’ve done most of the ground work already in the fourth quarter, so why not capitalize on that “head start” in the new year?

Remember, January looks like a long month on the calendar, but consider that New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Day holidays take a bite out of January’s work weeks. Consider also that many use January to take a winter vacation. So, get going and set reasonable deadlines for yourself – and others! Pick up where you left off, keep your eye on the ball, and see some early home runs in the new year! It’s time to follow up or foul up. Happy New Year to you all!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Maximize Communications Technology to Avoid Misunderstandings

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 17:00:02 +0000

Today we have many methods of communications. But which ones are the most appropriate for what kinds of communication? When should we use in-person, video conferencing, phone, email, or text? Some folks favor one form over another, but each has its place and should be used accordingly. Here is our short list for communications etiquette.

In-Person: This is still, by far, the most effective way to establish a relationship. You have a chance to read body language and so do they. You demonstrate your undivided attention by your presence. The time you have taken to physically be there also adds to your credibility. In-person is best for first meetings and important negotiations. It’s also a great way to diffuse any misunderstanding.
Video Conferencing: If you can’t meet in person, video conferencing is the way to go. It’s live, it’s real-time and it has many of the advantages of an in-person meeting. You can read the other person’s facial expressions to see if they get it, or if they have issues, you can address you can address them on the spot. Many misunderstandings are avoided by face-to-face conversation. We like to set up a video conference with anyone we are considering doing business with. It breaks the ice and they can see that we are real human beings, same as they are.
Phone: We have a client who is in the relationship sales business who says, “We have mastered an ancient form of communication: the telephone!” Before you laugh too hard, he has determined that phone sales are 108 times more effective than email sales. Why? Because you can hear the tone of the other person’s voice and make changes on the fly. You can give explanations quickly that would take mountains of back and forth emails. And your sincerity can be heard in your voice.
Email: We believe the best use of email is to document or flesh out agreements made in real-time. We send an email on the heels of a real-time meeting that basically says, “These are the understandings we have as a result of our meeting today. Please let us know before 5pm if we have anything incorrect. Otherwise we will proceed based on these understandings.” Email is a great way to memorialize conversations, but as a sales tool it is grossly abused, overused, and opened less and less. When it comes to requests, we like to ask for only one thing per email. If you ask for a list of things, the other person will generally only respond to the last thing on your list, causing you to go back and ask for all the others to be answered. Oh, and if you have a misunderstanding on email, pick up the phone and resolve it quickly. Don’t get into an email argument! And lastly, there are some things that should never be in email unless you want to live them down forever.
Text: This is a great way to coordinate meeting details with someone who is in the final legs of coming to visit. It’s also a great way to carry on a conversation with someone you are already familiar with and want to give them a chance to respond at their leisure (unlike the phone). Texts should be short and to the point – no more than three lines at a time. Make sure ahead of time that the other person agrees to being texted so they will keep their phone on.

All of these methods of communication have their place, advantages, and disadvantages. When you use them correctly you will have less misunderstandings and more improved relationships.

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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How Your Impatience is Used Against You

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 17:00:05 +0000

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“What? Aren’t you a millionaire yet? Don’t you have an international best seller yet? Well, step right up! Have I got the quick fix for you!” Or so it goes with most hype-sters pandering to your impatience and human laziness. We all want it faster and easier, and we’re all sure there’s a secret or a shortcut that will give us instant success.

There’s an entire industry out there blowing up your inbox with carefully worded emails promising everything from a 4-hour work week to a bestseller in a weekend, from hundreds of thousands in speaking fees to online riches in an instant. They think we all are so afraid of doing any real work, spending any real time or growing slowly but surely, that just the thought of all that work, and all the patience it requires, will surely discourage us. They think we will bite like groupers on any bait that has the promise of instant millions. They’re always sure to hold up a few examples of howling overnight successes just to get us going. It’s like the winners you always hear about in Vegas, never the vast majority who are still plugging away.

What’s really alarming is that there’s yet another industry out there. It’s higher up on the food chain, training those solicitors how to push our buttons and how to use just the right words in the subject line to get us to open that email. It’s training those solicitors how to craft the first sentence to catch our attention, how to structure the sales letter to appease common laziness and fear, so we’ll read it, and how time is running out. So buy now! Every month there are hundreds of new players, sending out hundreds of new emails, blowing up everybody’s inbox! Most of the solicitors have bought into the idea that everybody wants overnight, instant, effortless success, all at their fingertips.

It’s like a big chain letter. Don’t be the last person to buy it! Here in California we have a saying, “The people who got rich in the gold rush were selling shovels to the miners.”

We have a colleague who spent seven years building his email list to over 100,000, then over thousands of emails, funneled it down to 500 who were actually buying. But now they are buying less and less and demanding cheaper and cheaper products. And what about the 95,500 who got all those emails they didn’t want? Nobody’s talking about those relationships that have certainly been compromised. But the people who sold our colleague the infrastructure, gave him the training, and took his money are the ones who made the real dough. And they will continue to do so as long as there is an email marketing “gold rush.”

So where is this going? We’ve already stopped opening 80% of our emails! How about you? Sure there are a lot of well-meaning solicitors out there but they are being drowned out by the sheer number of irrelevant offers. It’s hard to know who to pay attention to any more.

Most real successful people will tell you that it took many years of concentrated effort. Sure, there’s a hint, a tip, or a lesson they can share that will save you time and money, but ultimately, success requires hard work, patience, and tenacity! It did for us. Sorry, it’s not the shiny-ball promise of overnight success you read about in your inbox. It’s the tried-and-true approach that has a much higher chance of real success. Find out what the real work is, get a good gold map, commit to a long slog, and watch out for the shovel-selling hype-sters!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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7 Tips for More Effective Email

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 31 May 2014 22:30:17 +0000

Email blasts and self-serving promotions seem to be taking over our inboxes. With all the white noise these days, business email communication can fall victim to overloaded and desensitized recipients. Is it any wonder that our own business emails get incomplete or tardy responses, are overlooked, misread, or simply deleted altogether? How can your get results in this environment?

Every day we communicate with folks whom we depend on to get our jobs done. We need answers to time-sensitive matters that are in the interest of both parties. When we realize that our email recipients have developed time-saving strategies to quickly scan content for the action items, we can alter our approach to make it easier for them to take action.

1 Pick up the Phone. Live communication will save you hours. You can then document both parties’ questions, answers, and agreements in an e-mail. Its best to make live contact with someone as soon you know you will be working with them. By doing this first, they will be more likely to give your email timely responses. If there’s a misunderstanding in your email correspondence, settle it quickly by phone.

2 Subject and Chain. Chose words in the “subject” line that simply describe the topic so you can easily search for the history of the conversation. Build on this email chain, and if they break the chain, add it back in your response. That way you will have a chronological record of the commitments made by both parties.

3 The On-Ramp. A great mentor once told us that people only remember the first thing you say and the last. The subject and first sentence should enable them to put your email in context quickly, “Hi Mary, I wanted to get back to you to start our project.” Then briefly describe the reason for your email in 10-15 words. If it takes a paragraph to describe or explain the subject matter, consider a phone call instead.

4 Time Sensitive. State when you need their response and be considerate of when they need yours so you both can meet your schedules. If a request is overdue, after the subject write “TIME-SENSITIVE” in caps. Don’t over use or abuse this or your recipient won’t take your emails seriously.

5 Easy to Read. Use #11 or #12 font and chose an easy-to-read, non-serif font style like Ariel, Calibri, or Helvetica. There’s a good reason why the highway departments chose non-serif font. Limit each paragraph to 3-4 sentences. Break up run-on sentences. Try to keep your entire content under one-half page (250 words). Don’t make them scroll down the page.

6 Numbers or Bullets. Generally, use bullets to make points, and use numbers to list questions. Try to limit both to fewer than six. If you have multiple questions, make your closing statement, “Thank you for responding to each of these questions.” Many people have a tendency to only respond to the last question in a series. With those who don’t respond to lists, it may be better to send a separate email for each question, but be careful you don’t become a “pest.”

7. The Off-Ramp. Leave them with your requested action item and deadline. Then thank them using their name, “Thanks for getting back to us by Friday, Mary.” Select a reminder date to follow up with them. And before you hit the send button, always review your email for clarity and accuracy.

Email is a challenging form of communication. Try these techniques to get your message across clearly. Thanks for getting back to me next week to let me know how these tips worked for you.

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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