From Tim Sanders "The Likeability Factor." In it, he paraphrases a line from Dale Carnegie's "How To Make Friends and Influence People"...

"You will win more friends in the next 2 months developing a sincere interest in 2 people than you will ever win in the next 2 years trying to get 2 people interested in you."

My version...

"You will win more new clients in the next 2 months developing a sincere interest in 2 prospects than you will ever win in the next 2 years trying to get 2 prospects interested in you."

Q: What if you approached (and targeted) each prospect because you were truly interested and fascinated by their business and/or the type of people they are?

How would that change your entire sales and marketing approach?

Are you fascinated by your clients and their business? If not, why not?

EXTRA CREDIT: Apply the same standard to your vendors/suppliers.

David Garland understands the basics of doing an interview.

After you watch this, do yourself a favor and go check out David's site for more of his RISE interviews.

Thanks David!

We have been here before. Economic downturns are not new, or, for this one, even that old. And while what we now face may be more severe, the reactions and behaviors of businesses feel all too familiar. One of the most insidious by-products of times like these, after the waves of belt tightening and budget/staff cutting, are the long and painful late payments. When business slows, payments to vendors get stretched.  If this has not started happening to you yet, it soon will if you do not make it part of your focus to avoid it. Your clients/customers are under financial pressure.  They are at their limits with their banks.  Less money is coming in but the bills are still there to be paid.  You could be in danger of becoming your clients’ bank.  This is a big topic and is impacted by many areas of The Business Brickyard concepts (building relationships, saying no to clients, etc.). You can do everything else right but get this wrong and your business will grind to a halt.  So, let's focus on getting you paid faster. (As a primer, you may want to read this post "Pay Fast. Get Paid Faster." from my book).

Let's start with this truth: Sending your invoice and getting paid is as much a part of what you do as your product or service. And yet people pay almost no attention to the importance of invoicing and collecting payment. You work so hard to deliver your product or provide service(s) to your clients and in return for that you get paid. That last part is as much a part of the arrangement as any other. So why do your invoices go out late? (I cannot tell you how many times I have to request an invoice from a vendor)  Why do they look so awful?  Why do you make it hard for me to remember I got them? Why do you never follow up about payments until they are really old?

Let's change that. Here are 5 ways to get paid faster:

1. Forget regular mail.
When you mail an invoice you lose control over it.  You have no idea when it was received or if it was lost in a pile of papers somewhere.  All bad. I don't care if you send a PDF or a Word document, or use one of the many inexpensive online invoicing tools out there (Freshbooks or Blinksale are 2 online options that I know people are using and that will work well. Billings is a fantastic option for Mac users.), but send the invoice via email and ask your client/customer to confirm receipt. If you do not hear back in a day or two, follow up!

2. Make sure you understand their payment process.
Always remember that the payment process is as much about your client as it is about you. When we worked with GE, our invoices had to have 2 people sign off on them before being sent down to a national payment center in Florida.  If a number was missing on the invoice it was sent back and had to start over. You need to make sure you know where your invoice is going from the point at which it leaves your office to when you receive the check. Do you need to have a PO# on it?  Do you need to reference a quote number?  Who do you call when payment is late?  Often, if you do more of the work on the invoice then you can skip a few steps.  Years ago I visited a client to whom we used to send 30-40 invoices a week.  I saw a huge basket on a desk filled with our invoices. When I asked what they were all doing there my client said that when it fills up she sits down to log and pay them. I could see this wasn’t the most efficient process for her or for me. As a solution, my company programmed a summary invoice to look like the worksheet our client prepared by hand, then we delivered all of our invoices via FedEx once a week with the summary invoice on top. Our client paid the one summary invoice and we got paid 2-3 weeks faster than before.

3. Talk about the payment terms up front.
We get so excited about closing a sale or winning a client that we rarely if ever discuss the payment terms. If you try to take it on later you are already fighting a losing battle.  If they have a corporate rule for payment in 30 or 60 days then you need to know that.  You need to be able to explain to your client why payment on your terms is so important.  Why it lets you deliver X,Y and Z of what they want from you.  These tough times will push you to take on business regardless of the payment terms, but be warned that over time a client becomes less valuable if you are financing them.  Years ago, we created a simple spreadsheet that showed how much we earned from each client in the past year, how much time they took to pay us and what that cost us using the current interest rate.  Some of those spreadsheets were an eye opener to say the least. We had clients that were costing us 30% of our profit in interest.  We brought the spreadsheets to our clients and had a fair and honest business conversation.  It provoked discussions about why they paid slowly and we learned about things we could do that made our invoices easier to process.  It never turned into a negative.  Do you know how much each client costs you?  Said a different way, do you know what your cash flow would be if every client paid you promptly?

4. Make the invoice an experience not a pain.
You work so hard to deliver a great experience to your customers - don't you? Why stop when the product or service is delivered?  How can you make the delivery of your invoice a memorable event to the recipient? It is a chance to ask for feedback.  It is a chance to thank them for their business.

Two suggestions:

a) Make your invoice look great! Your invoice represents your company. Does it do it well? Have the designer that designed your logo, web site or brochure design your invoice.  Make it clear and pleasant to read.  Forms do not have to be ugly.  Make it stand out from the others.

b) Add a message to the invoice that is memorable.  Maybe it is a funny quote or a fun way to present the total due. If you don't send many invoices then take the time to write a personal email with each one. If you send a ton, then this is impractical.  But you can create a cover email that briefly thanks them for entrusting the work to you.  Change your message every month or so.  Even a variety of facts about your company or staff works well. Make it memorable and make it work with the personality of your business. I had one vendor who mentioned in their invoice when staff members had a birthday or had a baby, which drove home their family oriented nature.

5. Have a system to follow up.
So simple and so totally forgotten.  What do most people do?  At best, they send a statement of past due invoices in the mail.  FAIL!  If I am ignoring or stalling on paying your invoice do you think I will pay much attention to a statement? In the past I had many clients that would wait to pay until we called, but when we didn't call fast enough we were essentially allowing that behavior to continue. Shame on us.  It's not a game until you let it become one.

When you agree that payment is due X days from receipt of the invoice (and now you will create that agreement clearly) then you call or email them X days +1.  You made a deal with your client to perform for them and part of that deal is to get paid when agreed.  As long as you kept your part of the deal you should - and must - insist they keep their part.  If you want to deal with clients with integrity, then demand it of them and do not be shy about holding them to their word. Don’t make it more complex than that.  Every accounting system has a way to track past due invoices.  Use it, and, most importantly, act on it!  That is your money out there.  Remember, all truth is in the cash account, so get your money into it.

These are just 5 ideas and there could be 50.  If nothing else, I hope this article gets you thinking about invoicing and collecting payments as an integral part of your business process. Changing your invoicing process can improve the health of your business in good times and bad. Bring some focus to it before your clients force you to.

As always, I welcome and look forward to your thoughts, questions and insights in the comments.

There is a lot of talk about businesses discovering their “story.” What I don’t hear much about is how to decipher your true story from your false story.

When I say “false story,” I am talking about the lies and rationalizations we tell ourselves to prove ourselves right or wrong about things that happen to us in life. That false story is really the filter that we run every experience through to fit into the world as we want to see it. This story is the result of years of old and often incorrect thinking which simply serve to protect us from some painful truth.

Businesses are prone to false stories too. How could they not? Businesses are run by and comprised of a whole bunch of people that each has his or her own set of these false stories. A business’s false story might be comprised of reasons why they won or lost a client, reasons why they are not making enough profit, reasons why their competitors stole that client away, how the customers are all a pain in the neck, are never happy, etc, etc.

All Stories. False ones.

If we are honest with ourselves, perhaps in a private moment, we might recognize such stories as the excuses they often are.

If your competitors were really as bumbling and awful as you are convinced they are, how is it that they are not only still in business, but are competing with you so well? If you were really right about your story, you would have more business than you could handle.

What if you told yourself that you lost a piece of business because some of your competitors, right now, really are better than you? What if you admitted to yourself that you really didn’t pay proper attention to the personalized service you touted during the sales process? Would that be so bad? You wouldn’t have to close your doors or fire the staff. But you would have the chance to find a different way. Owning up to your false story allows you to find your true story.
Only your true story provides a solid jumping off point to take aggressive action and effect lasting change.

Practice drill: Lose your story, find your truth

Think of the last three to five clients you lost or the last few prospects that chose your competitor over you. Write down the reasons you told yourself and/or everyone else why you lost. Look for your false story.

Now write down what the truth could be about each situation.
See how much easier it is to see how to take action from the truth list? The false list lets you sit idly by ranting about how unfair business is. A waste of time and opportunity.
Now write down the first action you can take. Turn those actions into initiatives in your business and real changes will occur in the culture and feel of your company. Quickly.

Everyone has a "story."

I am not talking about telling your story or telling a story. When I say "story" I am talking about the lies and rationalizations we tell ourselves that prove ourselves right or wrong about things that happen to us in life.  It is the filter that we run every experience through so they fit into the world as we want to see it.

The interesting fact about ones story, is that it typically is the result of years of old (and often incorrect) thinking and, therefore, makes the story false (or misleading at best). All too often, they simply serve to protect ourselves from some painful truth.

Following this accepted fact....every business (run and comprised of a whole bunch of people) has their own story too.  The reasons why they won or lost a piece of business. The reasons business is going good or bad. Why their competitors are not as good as they are.  How good their service/product is. Story, story, story and story.

If you are honest with yourself... even in a private moment.... you would see them as the excuses they are.

What if you told yourself that you lost a piece of business because the competition is really better than you? That you really didn't pay proper attention to the personalized service you touted in your brochure? You simply got beat from someone who had something better to offer.

Would that be so bad? It doesn't mean you have to close your doors or fire the staff.  But, It does mean you have to find a DIFFERENT way. And you can't get there until you lose your story.

Look, if your competitors were really as bumbling and awful as you convince yourself they are... how are they still in business?

Think of the last 3-5 clients you lost or prospects who chose your competitor.  Write down the reasons you told yourself and/or everyone else why you lost.

Look for your "story."

Now write down what the truth could be about each situation. It is a lot simpler to see how to take positive action from that list.

(The above post is one of the concepts from the book "Your Business Brickyard")

Ever notice How great things happen every time you peel yourself away from your desk and meet with clients, prospects or partners? But how often do you feel able to do it?

Like many business owners, my office has become a place to push paper and, more often than not, get in the way of people doing their jobs and delivering their best results. Unless you personally generate revenue or income from pushing paper (and lets hope you don’t generate any from getting in peoples way), consider for a moment that the bulk of your time is not best spent in the office. More as a goal than a rule, what if you spent half your time out of the office? If that sounds scary, unrealistic or disconnected, then it means it’s a good start.

The biggest excuse we have for being in the office so much is the old “It won’t get done right if I am not here.” Consider that this may be one of those false stories you tell yourself. If it is a true story, then you either need to hire better people or focus on empowering those you trust to do more.

Entrepreneurs are not wired to focus on the details of paperwork and day-to-day tasks, which is only appropriate. Entrepreneurs are big picture, idea people. Fortunately, there are plenty of people who are detail-oriented and derive tremendous satisfaction from that kind of work. If you take the time to learn about how each person in your organization is wired, finding the best role for each of them becomes a lot easier. When you put people into jobs they instinctively are great at and love doing, you unlock fresh reserves of power within your business.

(A great place to start is by having your employees take the Kolbe (A) natural abilities test.)

With your team now in their best places and your one-page scorecard/dashboard (Brick #9) tucked in your pocket, it is time to pull the parachute on that desk. Nobody spots opportunities or make decisions on the fly like a business owner (or a leader in any capacity) does. Nobody else has the edge of being the owner, president or leader at a meeting with a client, prospect or partner other than you. The best way to stay in touch with your business and its purpose is to talk to the customers and prospects in your market.

Working at your desk connects you every moment of every day to that ugly feeling of working in your business instead of working on it. Connecting with customers face-to-face is invaluable - it is what business owners do instinctively at the start until they get pulled to their desks by the gravity of growth and complexity. Want to keep the fire of that startup business alive? Fight desk gravity.

“I have a religious budget on my time,” says Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. Part of the religion is spending time with customers, about a third of his schedule. “I get energy from seeing our customers,” Mr. Ballmer explains. “It reminds me of the things we’re doing well and it also reminds me of the things where we need to improve.”

I was honored to be selected as a "Cool Friend" by TomPeters.com. Really happy with how the interview turned out. Hope you enjoy the read.

Howard Mann - "Cool Friend" Interview - TomPeters.com

Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business, a great book written by Ram Charan, has a key section that gives a fitting name to the best business building strategy I know. It has become a mantra we continually preach to our clients and is at the core of what DIG is all about. Certainly worthy of a Brickyard brick I would say.

"Focus on Hitting Singles and Doubles"

The .com age and the stories that continue to get media coverage continuoulsy push the business community to focus way too much on the home run. Business owners will put their businesses in peril trying to find the Million/Billion dollar idea. Enormous time, energy and money is spent on this misdirected focus. Big, BIG mistake. How can you enjoy the every day of running your business if your success rests on the rare occurrence of "hitting the home run?"

As Mr. Charan so perfectly puts it...

"Home runs don't happen every day or even every decade...

A surer and more consistent path - one that does not exclude home runs - is what I call going for "singles and doubles," growth based on improvements or natural extensions of the strategy, business model, customer needs, or technology of a business....Singles and doubles come from disciplined, creative and innovative in-depth analyses of all the fundamentals of a business, including new ways of identifying undermet or unmet customer needs and meeting them through improved internal alignment of the company...

Singles and doubles do not come from a look in the rearview mirror. Rather, they are a result of looking at the business from the outside-in, from customer needs backward into the company. In fact, they form the foundation for the home run."

As we always say here ... we aim to utterly eliminate whatever it is that hinders your right as a business owner to enjoy your position properly. Life is short.

Having the patience to hit "Singles & Doubles" dramatically changes your ability to enjoy the ride. One of them may turn into a home run, but if it doesn't you are still safely in the lead. (yes..I know, too many sports metaphors)