Category Archives: General Business

When you are wrapping up a conversation with your client, make sure you cover the following three items:

1. What is/are your biggest take-away(s) from today’s conversation?
2. What action will you commit to taking after this call?
3. Let’s open our calendars right now and schedule our next follow-up call.

© Chad Barr 2013. All rights reserved

Newton’s laws of motion states that “Objects at rest tend to stay at rest while objects in motion tend to remain in motion.” I’d like to suggest that the same concept applies to your life and business.

So why not start your year with the ultimate motion which is your commitment to execution? What are the top three things you are committed to take action on this month?

Happy New Year!

© Chad Barr 2013. All rights reserved

What do you think needs to take place in order to strengthen your thought leadership positioning next year? This may be the perfect time to start think about this. With the hope that this may be of help, here is the list I’ve compiled for myself:

• Create powerful relationships with other thought leaders.
• Attract thoughts leaders and those on their way to achieve that status or as I would call thought leaders -1.
• Have my next book accepted by a publisher.
• Strengthen my local exposure, brand and social media exposure.
• Increase my being quoted by others (bloggers, media).
• Delegate whatever possible and leverage our great team.
• Reduce my labor intensity (discard, delegate, take action, schedule).
• Move 3 key projects or goals consistently forward.
• Hold my calendar sacrosanct.
• Remove debt.
• Generate key successes with marketing gravity.
• Commit to execution.
• Reinvent myself and my clients.
• Increase my prolific publishing of great content.
• Engage speaking gigs (1 – 2 per month).
• Increase our marketing efforts.
• Improve life balance, health and exercise.
• Improve responsiveness.
• Read a book a week.
• Reach inbox zero.
• Stay focused on our strategy and implementation.

How about you? Would you share your list with us?

© Chad Barr 2012. All rights reserved

I am here in Winnipeg attending the CAPS speakers convention, meeting some great and friendly people, attending outstanding presentations, and getting ready to speak tomorrow. There were several speakers presenting today where I would rank some as remarkable, others as good and others as perhaps in need of improvement.

So here are my recommendations whether you are a speaker on or off the stage, or perhaps simply speaking to your prospects or clients:

1. Get to the point quickly.
2. Tell stories that would help illustrate or substantiate your point.
3. Engage the audience with thought provoking ideas and questions.
4. Provide value that would greatly help the recipient.
5. Create a message that mobilize them to take action.

And by the way, asking the “how many of you have been to ….” type question, is a lazy way to engage an audience.

© Chad Barr 2012. All rights reserved

1. Be willing to walk away
2. Negotiate terms not fees
3. When true trusting relationships have developed, and the prospect is enthusiastically ready to move forward to gain the proposed value, it never feels like negotiation, but a partnership!

© Chad Barr 2012. All rights reserved

Here are the 12 habits I have recognized that increase my success:

1. Invent and create new offerings
2. Refine my language
3. Publish
4. Leverage
5. Improve my marketing and sales skills
6. Create trusting relationships and communities
7. MTB = Meet The Buyer (and a lot of them)
8. Gentle assertiveness
9. No fear of rejection
10. Focus on increasing clients successes
11. Have fun
12. Rinse and repeat

Please share yours.

© Chad Barr 2012. All rights reserved

How many top performers do you know that wing it in their profession and career? I am certain that the best ones are serious, focused and disciplined and do not gamble their future and their success.

These individuals, whether athletes, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs or innovators, have certain traits in common. They:

• Study
• Prepare
• Practice
• Review
• Create
• Improve
• Repeat
• Raise the bar

How about you?

© Chad Barr 2012. All rights reserved