One of the things we work on with our clients and business owners is developing systems for their business.  It’s critical to build a systematic approach, figuring out the best way to do something and making sure it’s done that same way consistently…regardless of who’s doing the work.  Often the easiest way to rollout that kind of systematic thinking is to develop a checklist.

I just finished reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. It’s a great read and a lot more entertaining that I thought it would be.  Gawande is a medical doctor who decided to investigate the effectiveness of Checklists and how if they could be applied to the medical profession.

My experience with doctors is that they traditionally aren’t great writers or story tellers (although to be fair, I would much rather they be great doctors first…).  Having said that, Dr. Gawande writes in a way that makes it very easy to read, telling several stories to help illustrate his points.

He begins by clarifying the difference between errors of ignorance (when we don’t know enough) and errors of ineptitude (when we don’t use what we know properly) Then he leads you through the findings of his research he accumulated while writing the book.

He started with the aviation industry and Boeing…where they have championed the idea of effective checklists for over 75 years.  It’s not by accident the chance of dying in a plane crash is 1 in 25 Million. If there is the potential for something to happen in the air, chances are pretty good there is a checklist nearby the pilots will be able to refer to.

What his book points out is that it isn’t that people don’t know what to do. It is that it’s almost impossible to be prepared on your own…to know what to do under any circumstance without a framework to refer to. He isn’t discounting anyone’s knowledge; it is having a guideline that keeps you from missing the obvious.

If you are a fan of Van Halen, you will learn the real reason that David Lee Roth requested all the brown M & M’s be removed from their candy dishes back stage. It had nothing to do with his ego. Another great story is Walmart’s ability to respond after Katrina flooded New Orleans.  Both stories driven by the power of using checklists in creative ways.

Building a checklist doesn’t have to be overly complex – here are the 3 high level steps:

Development => Drafting => Validation

A couple of the take-a-ways on building a checklist is to keep it simple and talk in the language of the people who will be reading it. He even provides a Checklist for Checklists to help guide you through the process.  Obviously he’s a pretty methodical thinker…but he’s also an interesting guy – check out this interview he did with Stephen Colbert to get a better feel for why he’s so interested in this topic (and why it makes sense for you as well).

Could you implement some checklists?

The challenge with implementing Checklist with professionals in any industry is that you risk insulting their intelligence because they feel they already know all “the stuff”. Why do they need a list? I guess, that may be a question to ask the 155 people of Flight 1549 who landed safely on the Hudson River on Jan. 14^th, 2009.

As you start the New Year are there areas in your business where using a simple Checklist could reduce the chance for errors?  If you need some help, don’t be afraid to ask. If you already use Checklists in your business, I would love to hear some success stories – share them below.

Happy New Year!

Chris Steinlage, Kansas City Business Coach.

Photo by The U.S. Army

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Can you believe New Year’s Eve is almost here?  We are closing in on 2012 very quickly and It’s that time of year when everyone starts reviewing the goals they had for 2011 and thinking about 2012 goals. 

The approach and complexity of this process is all over the board. From the dreamers who repeat the same goals from year to year yet they never seem to get out of the starting blocks to the serious analytical types who have meticulously measured every step of progress from day one and are constantly reevaluating their direction.  Although there’s not 1 right way to do things, my hope is you tilt more towards the latter of the two approaches.

A goal is a dream with a deadline. – Napoleon Hill

Since you are reading this I am going to take the liberty of assuming:

#1) You have some goals.

#2) Your goals are in writing.

#3) Your goals are tracked at least in some degree.

But at the end of the day, what is the differentiator that propels some people to achieve their goals while others appear to be working just as diligently, but are not having the same level of success?

If you have ever been involved in any type of manufacturing, you are probably familiar with the word, Kaizen. It is a Japanese word meaning “improvement” and it defines a way of thinking.  In manufacturing it is about continuous improvement and is the foundation of the Six Sigma and Lean movements. 

With Kaizen, you are continuously looking for the bottle neck that is keeping you from doing something better, cheaper, faster, and more efficiently. Companies embracing this “continuous improvement” mentality assemble teams to dissect specific areas of manufacturing to determine what the biggest bottle neck is and how they can improve/reduce/remove it. These are called “Kaizen Events”. The results of these events are often transformational for the business.

Try this!

My challenge to you and your team as you think about 2012 and your goals is to perform a “Kaizen Event” on the goals you have struggled to achieve in this past year. What is the bottle neck that is challenged you in achieving it? How can you improve/reduce/remove it? Blaming it on the economy is unacceptable. Whatever your industry, I am sure we can find examples of like businesses who are succeeding. So skip the easy way out and find the real obstacles.

Then, as you establish your goals for 2012, incorporate your findings and use the same process going forward into the New Year when ever you get stuck.  I think you will find it very empowering…and you’ll make a lot more progress!

If you can to this with a group of your peers you will have more success, so I would encourage you not to complete this solo. Understand, self-diagnostics can work, but you risk becoming a race horse with blinders on – be aware of that. Whatever your approach, find the bottle necks in your goals and open them up.

Have you ever looked for the obstacles in your goals? How did you open up the bottle neck? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Chris Steinlage  Kansas City Business Coach

Photo by meddygarnet

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(Image from the famous Candy Factory episode of I Love Lucy – Lucy’s system didn’t work so well in this case…)

The now ubiquitous tagline “There’s an App for that” gained so much traction for Apple they filed to trademark it in Dec. of 2009. If you have an I-phone, Droid, or tablet PC you probably are amazed at the ever growing number of applications available. Some are for just for fun, but many were created to simplify your processes and your life.

So replace “App” with “System”? “There’s a System for that”. It certainly isn’t nearly as catchy, but for a business owner it’s even more important.  Have you ever walked through your business and observed how many repeatable systems or processes are in place?  In a really successful business you can bring someone new in, give them a little instruction, and turn them loose to follow the system you have in place and hardly miss a beat.

However for most of us…we think we have systems in place but somehow the same mistakes happen again and again – which is a clear sign that you’ve got an issue.

Call Before You Dig!

Everyone has probably seen a “Call before you Dig” commercial or ad.  A large portion of my career was in the heavy equipment industry…and a lot of the equipment we distributed was “ground engaging”, which simply means during operation it will be penetrating the earth’s surface…digging. That means knowing the location of underground utilities is paramount.  Without that – you aren’t going to be getting any work done.

I assure you every contractor and every municipality I ever worked with has a system in place that triggers someone to contact the “Call before you Dig” locating service well in advance of an installation crew arriving. But the reality is there were dozens of times I arrived at a job site to find out “the locates” weren’t completed or they weren’t done in the correct area. There was a break down in the System and the result is unrecoverable expenses in lost productivity for everyone involved.

A Better way?

It’s an ongoing battle, but as a business owner you have to continually look at your business and find opportunities to implement systems that will simplify your life or your employee’s lives, and improve productivity.

If you don’t know where to start, find a small specific area in your business and start there.  Keep it simple, but take action. The system you design should be a written step-by-step process that you can hand to anyone of average intelligence and they can replicate it without you.  Creating a system doesn’t have to be complex, but it won’t happen without focused action.

Do you have a system for selling your product or service? A structured way (a system) you prospect for clients? If a client has a complaint do you have a system to handle the complaint or do you just deal with them as they happen? Maybe it is a system to complete a task in your business management software (Quick Books. Peachtree, etc.) Proven repeatable systems are stress reducers and money makers.

You can do it. “There’s a System for That!”

We would love to hear about how you have implemented a system into your business and how it impacted you, your employee and/or co-workers, and ultimately your bottom line.  Please share your thoughts in the space below.

Chris Steinlage    Kansas City Business Coach

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In his book ‘UnMarketing’ author Scott Stratten talks about a lot of things.  He talks a lot about twitter, about the essence of what marketing is today (versus 10 or 20 years ago), about the the criticality of engagement and a lot of interesting stories and anecdotes from his personal experiences.

It’s all good stuff, but it’s the discussion and examples of developing a Pull and Stay system that really made this a worthwhile book for me.  Pull and Stay refers to creating a system (or a series of systems) that will attract the right kind of prospective buyers to you and keep you front of them in an automated way.

It’s the opposite of the Spray and Pray approach – which is exactly what most business owners do when they send out all sorts of unrequested interruptions into the marketplace and hope hard that someone sees the right message, at the right time, resonates with that message and is in a position to buy!  Not a recipe for long term success!

Here are some other highlights from the book:

The main theme of the book is that business owners need to stop trying to market and just start engaging…with their existing clients, prospective and potential partners.  Be a real person and make an effort to build real relationships…sadly that’s kind of a revolutionary message.

For starters – Scott is an engaging kind of guy! Which actually both helps to prove his point and disprove it at the same time.  He lives his message and when you read the book (or especially if you listen to the audio book – I did both) he comes across as the kind of guy you’d just enjoy hanging out with.  It would be really easy to engage with a guy like Scott and clearly that’s serving him well from a business perspective.

Unfortunately many people aren’t like Scott and don’t have the natural ability to quickly and easily build relationships and engage with people.  The concepts he uses definitely work for him, but they may not work as well for the less socially skilled business owner.

It’s all about engaging

Having said that – Scott is recommending the right approach, especially for business owners.  His central message that business owners need to stop marketing and start engaging with their audience is right in line with what Seth Godin has been saying for years:

“Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don’t”.   – Seth Godin

And although the concept of permission based marketing isn’t new, the practice isn’t that widespread.  Those who practice it are in the minority and there’s clearly a need for most business owners to understand there is a better way to reach their prospective clients…and that is to build a real relationship with them, talk to them, be authentic, be transparent and engage. 

This is the one area where small business owners have a huge advantage over their corporate counterparts.  A small business owner can easily be a real person, which is what it takes to engage.  A big company generally finds that very hard to do.

Everything is Marketing

Another key point he makes early in the book is the idea that everything you do ties back to marketing.  How your phone is answered is marketing, what your store or location looks like is marketing…the way you respond to questions or requests…also marketing. 

Basically everything that you or your employees do influences customers and potential customers either towards your business or away from it – and with that in mind you have to look at ALL of those potential touch points and optimize them to be a positive experience if you want to excel at attracting and engaging business.

Twitter and other tactics

Scott is a huge fan of Twitter and he’s learned to use it to great effect as an engagement and marketing tool for his own business.  He makes a strong case for how Twitter can work effectively and if you’re looking to learn how it can be used to help you market or engage, this is definitely the book for you.

He also does a nice job of breaking down additional tactics and ideas – especially those focused on displaying expertise and raising awareness.  These kinds of tactics are especially effective for service industry businesses, but they can work for other businesses as well.  He covers writing (blogging, articles, etc.), videos, speaking and newsletters with examples and suggestions across the board.

Overall review – give it a read!

Every business owner would get a lot of value out of UnMarketing – the section on pull and stay ideas to attract potential clients and stay in front of them is easily worth the price of admission alone.  But there’s a lot more here.  Scott covers a lot of great marketing ideas that could apply to all businesses.  And…just as important, he’s engaging and entertaining.  It’s a fun business book to read.

My complaints are fairly small – there was some wandering around in terms of ideas and how things were organized.  There was also a lot of focus on social media (and especially Twitter).  It’s there for a reason – social media is the best way to engage with people today because the tools can give you scale and capabilities you can’t get elsewhere but his message was most compelling when talking about the underlying ideas of engagement rather than the technology…not a huge complaint, just an observation.

All in all – I recommend UnMarketing.  You’ll enjoy it, you’ll learn some things and most importantly you’ll refocus on engaging with clients and potential clients.

Have you read UnMarketing?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

photo by mccun934

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You’re going to have to learn how to market your products and services effectively.  I’m differentiating marketing from sales as the activities and efforts that draw interested, qualified buyers to ask about your product or service.  Without marketing…the process of getting people to come to you, you have a major uphill battle when it comes to growing your business with strictly outbound sales efforts.

You also have to figure out how to systematize and automate all the major components of your business.  Ultimately it needs to run like a machine…you build the framework and all the components, set up the systems that other people can run (or are automated) and it continues to generate money (and grow) even without your daily input!  It’s the only way to scale your business.

One step in this direction is the combination of these two things – Marketing Automation…building a marketing machine…a system and automation that will help your marketing run (mostly) on it’s own.

Let me give you an example – at Aspire we’ve just started experimenting with some Marketing Automation and although there’s still a long way to go, it’s off to a good start..

Goal for Aspire’s Marketing Automation

Over time we’ve found that the most effective marketing approach for the Business Advisory services we offer is educating business owners with ideas on how they can grow their business.  In order for this educational approach to be effective, it has to be relevant to the right target audience, it has to be shared gradually over time and it ties into additional educational opportunities (i.e. workshops or other events).   So the goal for Marketing Automation for Aspire is to build automated tools that will help facilitate that educational process.

Obviously this blog is a great starting point, but business owners generally don’t have time to dig through a blog to find what they really need.  The answer?  Targeted, high value information and ideas that can be delivered to interested business owners on their terms…I’m generally not available late at night…and there are only so many hours in the day, so it has to be information that’s packaged on a convenient schedule for the entrepreneur.

How does it work?

That’s where the Marketing Automation step comes in – check out out the Sign Up form at the right side of the blog (and also on the main part of the website) for a free e-Book on ‘Leading Your Business To Success’.  This is a great set of information that will benefit any business owner who’s trying to grow their business, with a lot of practical tips and ideas and now that’s we’ve done the hard work of pulling the information together, we can get it to interested business owners in a totally automated fashion.

Some of those business owners will get a lot out of the information and that’s all they want or need – great!  We’re glad to have helped out.  Others will also get a lot out of the information but they’d like help on additional ideas or other issues – that’s great too!  We’d love to meet with them and see if there’s a fit to really help them accelerate what they’re doing.

In addition to the primary set of information – we’ve also created a series of simple Tips to help business owners build Focus, Clarity and Momentum.  Same idea from a marketing automation perspective, but may appeal more to those who are looking for some quick hits rather than big ideas.

In both cases, we are delivering valuable information over time in a way that’s convenient to the reader.  Also we are building up a list of people who have given us permission to talk to them about how to grow their business.  Adding value, starting a conversation and staying top of mind for when it makes sense to take action.  That’s what marketing automation is all about.

Are you automating any of your marketing approach?  What are you using and how are you doing it?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – please share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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