When you organise a meeting, a coffee, a phone meeting … set an agenda. That way both parties know what the reason for the meeting is, and what the expected outcomes are. It helps you drive the conversation to where you want it to go. What happens when you don’t? You will often find yourself spending hours in meetings that ...

When one of your friends asks you to ‘Like’ their Facebook page, just do it. Don’t be tempted to think “I’m too busy”. If you’re on Facebook already you’re obviously not too busy. After all, you want them to ‘Like’ your page next month when you ask them, right? A simple gesture like this is just one of the multitude ...

Here’s a trick question: would you rather do the same task over and over again or build a system / policy / procedure for that task once and have somebody else do it for you again and again? That is the whole point of leverage. Your only investment is the time it takes to systemise, and these days it can ...

Are you working from home? Make sure your office is in a specific area so you can ‘leave the office’. We all deserve downtime. Don’t even have a room you can set aside? Buy a screen or room divider and set that up. Maybe you’re always on the move, working mostly from your laptop. Have a token that you set ...

Never outsource something you don’t know how to do! Yes, you read that correctly! Imagine outsourcing your finances to your accountant but you don’t know what a P&L (profit & loss) statement is. How will you have a meaningful conversation with your accountant, and how can you expect your accountant to help you improve the business, let alone control it? ...

A real core element to communicating effectively is being consistent about it. How do you feel if somebody calls you out of the blue and you haven’t heard from them for six month? Or sends you an email with a special offer, and you don’t recognise who it is… Are you likely to buy from them? Get my drift? There ...

Whatever you do, whenever you meet a new person and get a new name, make sure you put them into your database. It may seem crazy at first but a few years down the track you will look at your list with awe when you have thousands of names. This is NOT one of those tasks you can put off ...

I don’t mean to say you have to be pretty. But the new paradigm in marketing is clearly attraction marketing. If you’re not attractive to do business with you have to bully your prospects to say “yes”. Not a good look. Attraction marketing can be ‘hard work’ though, because you really need to be honest with yourself. You need to ...

We all want to be Superman at times. But, unless you have limitless energy and a superhero outfit, you are better off engaging others to achieve superhuman fats. Staff, contractors and suppliers are the Robin to your Batman—don’t go it alone. But where to start? You want to outsource or delegate, but want to ensure the task is done properly. ...

The solution is actually really simple: Only sell 1-to-many! Most of us have tried sitting down with somebody, starting what essentially is a sales process. Whether in the boardroom or at the coffee shop—the dynamics are the same. The trouble with this approach is that not only is it time consuming but conversion without authority is harder than ever. Switch ...