business mentor Archives - Excellerate Associates

Winging Your Presentation Isn’t a Strategy

May 26, 2022 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

People of all ages, occupations, and experiences struggle with public speaking. Although 77% of the US population feels some anxiety, some business professionals will play off their natural orator abilities and wing it then wonder why they are not getting the outcomes they wish they would from a speaking engagement. Winging your presentation isn’t a strategy.

We’ve all be there where the speaker talked without taking a pause, didn’t engage the audience, and got distracted by their electronics failing. Add in the complexities of the pandemic shifting communication from onsite to online, winging it is inefficient.

The reality is presenting takes know how. It might surprise you to learn that it’s also not about you. While it can seem like it’s all about the speaker, great speakers know it isn’t about them.

Many years ago, I attended a conference to hear one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard. Ever. To this day, I regularly refer her book to my clients. What did she do that no other speaker was able to do? Empower the audience to take inspired actionable steps. We didn’t take away nuggets, we took away implementable steps.

The delivery was also authentic and engaging. You were left with long-term knowledge not short-term hype.

Whether you’re enrolling others in an idea, product, service, presenting takes skill. When you learn the skills and align them with your own human wiring so your delivery is authentic, you lead that presentation confidently.

Before you present the next time, start by asking yourself, what does my audience want to walk away with that would help forward what they are up to? It’s an often forgotten, but highly regarded question every speaker should ask themselves.

Invitation

If you are inspired to:

Craft a core message that succinctly educates your audience, distinguishes your brand, and effortlessly aligns with your products and services
Boost your confidence in delivering your signature talk that produces outcomes
Authentically engage with your audience with freedom and ease
Design your Signature Story so that it distinguishes you in the audience’s mind and keeps you top of mind
Increase your brand visibility and position your company as the go-to resource
Learn how to align your speaking techniques with your human wiring so you authentically deliver your presentation

…join us for the Speaker Lab: Create Your Signature Story and Talk on June 22, 2022 with online feedback sessions on July 13 and 20, 2022.

Start to elevate your speaking skills by registering at: https://www.excellerateassociates.com/speaker-lab/

Combine These Two Strategies to Sell More Products (Including Your Books)

October 19, 2017 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

As a consumer, you may have noticed that when it comes to buying, there are certain times of the year to purchase that will save you money, such as clothing, appliances, and computers. As a business owner, have you considered using this same strategy to sell more of your products?

If your company sells products, consider your customer’s buying habits at times of the year or days of the week. Certain times are best for buying certain items for the consumer.

For example, one of my mentoring students of the Best Seller Profit System Workshop, found it interesting when I shared with her that more than 40% of all books sold during the year are purchased between November and January.

Whether you’re selling a hard cover book, paperback book, or children’s book, all of these types of books are great gift-giving ideas. As a self-published author, we created several strategies for her marketing plan that included ways to position her book and related products during this time of year to maximize her long-term sales.

Most importantly, don’t let the time of the year be your only consideration. According to Harvard Business Review, “84% of business to business buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions.”

With this in mind, combine strategies. At the most optimal time of the year or week, collaborate with your referral sources to spread the word about your product.

Make it simple for your referral partners to share your products or services. Create a page of marketing copy that they can cut, paste and share with their communities through email or social media.

Remember to also reciprocate. Where appropriate, ask your referral sources to share marketing copy for their products or services that you could cut, paste and share with your community.

When you combine these two strategies, you’ll sell more products, including books. You’ll also find it easier to grow your reach and revenue.

►To learn how to become a Best Selling Author and profit long term from your book, join us for the Best Seller Profit System Workshop Nov 2-3, 2017.

Business Owners – Explore These 2 Elements to Increase Your Sales

September 7, 2017 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

According to a study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), small business owners identified poor sales as one of the top four problems they face today. The others included taxes, government regulations and requirements, and quality of labor.

As a business owner, you have good reason to identify poor sales as a problem. Without sales, you don’t have a business. Increasing your sales might be a lot easier than you might think.

To increase your sales, explore these two elements:

1. Your Process

Sometimes increasing sales is as simple as looking at your sales process, specifically your lead follow up. According to a study by Harvard Business Review, companies that called on leads within 1 hour or less were 7 times more likely to have a conversation with a decision maker.

At the Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp for Business Owners, we reverse engineer the sales process. Start by outlining your best practice sale. Write down each step. Look for ways to improve the customer experience, insert automation, or streamline the process.

2. Your People

If you’re in business, you need people. People to be clients or people to be on your team. You are also selling something whether it is an idea, a product, or a service.

When you’re selling, hearing a no in sales can stop some people in their tracks or motivate others. As a business owner, it’s important to know what kind of sales people you need for the type of sales you need to make.

Let’s face it, nobody likes rejection. However, there is a biological reaction that occurs when you hear the word no. If your biological wiring measures higher in autonomy, the more the word no motivates you to get more sales. The lower the autonomy the more no discourages you. It is just what is happening in the background but has a significant affect on sales performance.

Couple that biological dynamic with how no’s take on many forms from a lead’s perspective. An outright verbal or written no is easy to recognize. More often, it shows up when your calls aren’t returned, they unsubscribe, or they’ll “do it later.” Sometimes these no’s are disguised as no but are no’s for now. Sometimes these no’s require consistency on your part and sometimes something is missing. More likely they are related to your customer’s wiring.

When you understand human wiring you build work teams maximizing each team member’s wiring. When team members understand each other, they work together better and are more productive.

What’s even more important is when your sales team begins to understand their lead’s hardwiring, and delivers information the way the lead wants to receive it, they will also increase their sales performance.

In summary, if you want to increase your sales look at two elements. Explore your process and invest in your people.

To learn more about your hardwiring and systematize your business, join us for the Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp for Business Owners on October 5-6, 2017. Register by Sept 29, http://www.wakeupprofitable.com

Business Owners: Where Innovation Unfolds

July 27, 2017 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

You are present. You are open to new ideas. You are a visionary. You are resilient. You are adventuresome. You are resourceful. You are optimistic. You are intentional. You are integrous. You are prolific.

Do these entrepreneurial traits describe you right now? This minute.

What I’ve learned in over 14 years mentoring small business owners is that there is a glaring element that is missing when entrepreneurs are in the heart of a challenge. This element is incredibly simple. It’s so simple business owners laugh when they realize it’s what has been keeping them from achieving new levels of success.

Regardless of what you’re up against, you can resolve, breakthrough, solve, or achieve the hurdle you’re experiencing when you adopt this element.

So, what’s the secret element to solve the challenge you’re facing? Choosing. Choosing who you are being in any moment.

Well, think of your greatest challenge right now. Who are you choosing to be about that challenge? Are you choosing an empowering element or disempowering element?

Are you choosing to be…

Present or distracted?
Open or closed?
Visionary or overwhelmed?
Resilient or stuck?
Adventuresome or restrictive?
Resourceful or inactive?
Optimistic or pessimistic?
Intentional or unwilling?
Integrous or unreliable?
Prolific or ineffective?

Once you choose the empowered element, what action could you take?

For example, if you’ve been denied that loan to invest in new technology that would scale your business, who are you choosing to be about it? Pessimistic or stuck?
What if you choose to be optimistic and resilient. Then, ask yourself, what are all of the options, ideas or actions an optimistic and resilient leader would create?

Talk to another lending resource?
Look for grants or other funding sources?
Ask your business mentor for other options?

Can you see how new ideas are generated by stepping into the empowered element? The untold element to a successful entrepreneur is choosing. Choosing in any moment who you will be. This is where innovation unfolds.

Never Get Stopped Again-3 Steps to Implementing Your Big Idea

June 29, 2017 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Do you get stopped from implementing your big idea because you try to figure everything out?

In case you didn’t notice, business professionals have many ideas filling their head. The biggest stopping point is they try to figure it out and get stopped from pursuing an idea.

Can you relate?

You find yourself stopping before you start. Here are some things to stop and start to get your big idea launched into the world:

1. Stop trying figure it out. Start with the first step.

Does this story sound familiar? You have a great idea, but you think you need to have all of the parts figured out before you take the first step. As a result, you procrastinate because it seems so overwhelming.

Instead, exercise your imperfect action muscle. Don’t get too ahead of yourself. Take the first step even if you don’t have answers to some of your plan.

When I set a goal to become an author, I didn’t know the first thing about getting published. I simply started taking action in writing the book. Before I had finished my book, I started asking questions of people who were in the industry, who wrote a book previously, and asked anyone who knew someone who could answer my questions.

Interestingly, once I declared that I wanted to become a published author, I would meet the right people at the right time that forwarded the plan. The same plan that I didn’t have figured out yet.

Events aligned with the intention I set. As I took imperfect action, resources showed up.

2. Stop consuming. Start becoming laser focused.

With the internet and social media, there are multiple ways to consume information to grow your business. It is also an easy path to information overload that keeps you stuck.

Instead, get focused. Become the leader of your schedule rather than your schedule owning you. Set aside specific dates and times to focus on the most important activities that forward your goal.

According to The One Thing by Gary Keller, a focusing question can help you identify the one thing to work on. You’ll want to make the question big and specific, like “What can I do to become a Best Selling Author in six months?” It’s a big objective and it’s specific. It causes you to become laser focused and to reach outside of your usual toolbox of solutions to reach it.

3. Stop making excuses. Start choosing.

In the world of sports, either you won the game or you didn’t. Everything else is a reason or excuse.

As my business mentor once shared with me, “You have reasons or results.” Quit letting yourself off the hook and step into the contribution your idea will make in the world once implemented.

If you find yourself giving a lot of excuses or reasons, use these three simple steps:

1. Ask yourself: What is the contribution my idea will make in the world?

2. Ask yourself: What one action can I take right now that is in alignment with that contribution?

3. Take that action.

When you get stopped, there is a loss of personal power. Choosing to take action is a courageous act. Choose to be courageous to move beyond your stopping point.

P.S. If you’re inspired to take the first action to writing and self-publishing your book, then join me for live and online for:

Become A Best Selling Author Introductory Class on Friday, August 4, 2017.

Get Your Free eBook: Elevate and Expand Your Brand

Invitation

Get Your Free eBook:
Elevate and Expand Your Brand