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Continuous Development

I’ve never started my newsletter with book highlights, but these two are critical reads. SCALING UP by Verne Harnish and EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS by Salim Ismail. Verne’s follow-up to Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is a book that I would describe this way – no one considering building a business or currently running a business should be doing so without devouring SCALING UP and implementing the described systems and processes for success. I would strongly recommend investing in the paper version, and this is coming from a guy who almost always is reading books electronic format these days. However, the structure of the book is more of a workbook/guide/textbook, and will lose something in the electronic version. The book is structured around 4 basic sections: People; Strategy; Execution; and Cash. Many of my clients have benefited from Vern’s Rock Habits, but this SCALING UP is like the Rock Habits on steroids. It’s full of forms, schedules and examples for effective implementation. While all the sections are incredibly filled with immediate value action items, the section on Cash is so powerful I can’t imagine anyone not benefiting enormously. My book has more notes and highlights than any book I’ve read in the last decade, and this will be a book I will be driving my clients to for many years to come

I had the opportunity to hear Salim Ismail keynote Verne’s Growth Summit in Las Vegas and he blew the audience of 650 business leader’s minds. The conference took a 30 minute break right after Salim’s opening words, and the facial and verbal expressions ranged from either stark panic of “how will my business survive this?” to “what an opportunity we have to take advantage of such dramatic world change”. We were all fortunate to get a copy of Salim’s recently published EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS, and each page seems to elicit a similar response. Radical transformation is the name of the game. The world as we once knew it is gone and over. New organizations, leveraging technology, are ten times better, faster and cheaper than those who are not acting similarly. To continue to do business as one has in the past (even if it has proved to be successful), is a death sentence. The word to be taken here is Disruption. The world as we have known it is being hyper changed. Just think: Ten years ago we had five hundred million internet-connected devices. Today there are about eight billion. By 2020 there will be fifty billion and a decade later we’ll have a trillion internet-connected devices. Opportunity or threat? All in the eyes of the viewer. David Rose, author of the bestselling book ANGEL INVESTING sums it up well: “Any company designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st.” Some examples of “disruptors” enjoying great success and competitive advantages include: Uber; Google; Zappos; Airbnb; Google; Waze; Quirky; and the list goes on. Salim does a great job in EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS of identifying the current landscape and suggesting a route to be a victor in this new economy. While at it, I’d suggest you web browse Singularity University for a mind blowing deep dive into the “new world”.

I will finish up this section with Verne’s “Five Questions to Ponder for 2015” article in FORTUNE December 22:

• Would you rehire your key executives?
• Can you state your strategy simply?
• What’s your cash conversion cycle?
• What 25 relationships do you need to nurture?
• What could disrupt your industry?

LIFE BY DESIGN

Each year I encourage my readers to get serious about your goal setting. I call it Backward Thinking, similar to Steven Covey’s “begin with the end in mind”. Four key component parts: Goals in writing; written plan on how to achieve the goals; system of measurement; and, system of accountability. To hear more about this, click here to video that make the point.

Each year I post several items on my website – jackdaly.net –in section Life by Design. There I have my detailed personal goals, my year-end summary of how 2014 went, and my overall Bucket List. This adds a level of accountability beyond the 5 people who regularly hold me accountable. I hope that those who visit the website walk away inspired by the possibilities available in your own lives, and pick up some ideas on how to better “design” theirs.

Since the beginning of a new year typically gets people refocusing on their health, I wanted to introduce you to vwellhealth.com. They use authentic health education and real-life tools and resources to combat the overwhelming epidemic of chronic disease and illness, working with hospitals and corporations to foster healthy lifestyles in their organizations. Their performance stats regarding improved body fat percentages, weight loss, and increased muscle mass are impressive, especially when accomplished in such a fun, healthy fashion. I encourage all to take a look!

PAPER NAPKIN WISDOM

The book and goal setting app should be released in the first quarter, and I am truly excited to bring this to market. In partnership with Govindh Jayaraman, more than 1000 successful entrepreneurs were asked to write down the most important key to their success, on the back of a napkin. From there, several were dug deeper via a podcast – click here to get a sense of the value. Both Gov and I will be presenting the first of many ONE DAY WORKSHOPS as a follow-up to my one day Smart Selling Workshop on February 26-27 in Toronto. You can register for both or either of the two at jackdaly.net. Our Sales Workshops have garnered “best ever” reviews for years; here, now, is the day we take the business goals resulting from the Sales Workshop and turn them into a Action Plan to ensure success.

Intent is not the same as Action. The big difference in people and their results is those that “intend” to get to it, don’t. Those that take action are so much better off in their business a year from now. Reliable, sustainable, and bigger sales results are driven by focused action on proven ideas.

The highest achieving athletes and business leaders use coaches to leverage their success. Any business that wants to see substantial profits must understand that a productive sales organization is the only way to grow revenues, and your sales team needs the best training and techniques available to reach its full potential. Sales Managers also need reinforcement with bright ideas and street proven techniques to make their leadership more impactful. Imagine having a sales coach available any time of day or night to provide your sales team with out-of-the-box, exciting new ideas to make your company more profitable, all while having fun doing it!

With that, I’ve created a convenient tool designed to all sales professionals the proven tools, knowledge, and application to successfully sell in today’s hyper-competitive business environment. All of this is available now with Jack Daly Sales University! Please check out my personal intro to Sales U.

The full program is 13 hours of fun, energetic, and powerful material that can be used to train your entire sales team, from entry level to seasoned veterans. Sales Managers will get relevant methods to implement with the whole team, and best of all, you can make the Sales U courses part of your new hire training or sales meetings… anytime, anyplace.

If you are interested in learning more about the online courses offered, visit the website to preview all courses, read about content, and purchase when ready. Contact Gabriel Clift, (855) 733-7378 with any questions you may have about the program.

TIME MANAGEMENT
I talk about “Model the Masters”, so let’s learn from The International Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness. They surveyed 267 C-level execs and they tend to have their days look like: 45 minutes exercise; 2.44 hours in meetings; 25 minutes strategy planning; 2.42 hours texting/emailing and 30 minutes on personal development. How do you stack up? Would you know?!

Speaking of efficiency, are you using the App EVERNOTE? Able to sync content from the cloud to your desktop, laptop, and smartphone, perfect for small-business owners and sales professionals on the go. When you update on one device, it updates all. Great for organizing your business reading (especially for finding later), word searches, updating databases, overall organization, storing files, reminders, to-do lists, and so much more. I speak about “leverage” meaning getting more for less, and this is a great tool to leverage.

TAKING ACTION

A look at what others are DOING!
The frustrating part of what I do as a speaker/teacher is relying on others to “take action”. Frustrating especially when you hear about the challenges of a tightened economy, and yet too many folks not taking the actions needed to WIN. Check these examples of others, and then ask yourself why you aren’t “making things happen”.

Jack- We recently won a 5 year / 200M contract with the Army and we’re in the process of on-boarding & training 30 new employees… great way to start 2015!
Paul Trapp- National Conferencing, Inc.

I told my guys about your money bag. 50 guys. One wakes up after my presentation and handed me this card. In front of the whole meeting. I think we got the message across. Thanks for the info! I had a 1.5 hour opening that had my team on their feet!
Charles J. Copley, Golden Technologies

The attached email is one of our standard practices for our team at the end of each day. All team members must share their daily actions/activities and it goes to there piers and team mates, I love everyone being copied in as it breeds the right practices as the ones that do this well are our top performers. Hope you like the idea.
Stuart Coyne- MPM Marketing Services

Growth Summit Highlights

I had the good fortune to speak in Las Vegas in late October at the Fortune Growth Summit. As I attended all the sessions, my big thought was “I wish every one of my clients were in attendance”, as the material covered was life and business changing. My notes ended up being over 20 typed pages. Clearly I am unable to provide these to our distribution here, nor can we go backwards. But, we can attend future Summits, 2 of which are held in the USA each year. I told Verne that pending a commitment to a client, he should plan on seeing me there regularly! I encourage all to do the same. Here is a shallow attempt at content transfer: Salim Ismail I mentioned earlier…in a word DISRUPTION. You either get in front and call it a parade, or be prepared to be run over!

Steve Martin (not the comic), author of The Small Big. “You don’t have to change anything about the product to change the need for the product. You can change the context in which the product is being offered.” Context trumps cognition. Steve’s presentation and book are filled with rather easily implementable actions that can lead to immediate top line and bottom line results. In fact, one attendee on the second day announced to the group that she did just that and their company was already experiencing the “wins”

Lis Wiseman raised such a brutal question: “Where does your company get trapped by experience or success?” Who is not married to how you now do things, and is empowered to be heard? Experience builds blind spots; ignorance can drive top performance, if it can surface!

• Kevin Harrington, of Shark Tank/Infomercial fame. Consider a Shark Tank approach for your company- creating a contest for employees to pitch new ideas.
• Keith Ferrazzi, author Never Eat Alone. Who are the most important relationships (internally and externally) for your organization? Make them meaningful! Do you have behaviors in your company that you practice frequently that don’t serve the company well? Highest performing teams have 2 biggest indicators: High degree of Candor and high degree of Peer Accountability.
• Randy Komisar. Entrepreneurs inspire. Managers empower people to get things done. Advisors give advice about the business. Coaches train you to accomplish something. Mentors invest in you to be your best self. What is your team and it’s composition? Managers have 3 big roles: Hire well; develop their people; fire people.
• Beverly Kaye, author of Love ‘em or Lose ‘em. People don’t leave organizations, they leave bad managers. Key is to help people find work they love without leaving!
• John Dejulius. Many companies think they are providing great service (80%)but only a small number of customers thin k so (8%). Remove “policy” and use “Guidelines” so that you can adjust as needed to make customers happy. Be the brand your customers can’t live without.
• Each of the speakers were on the program as a result of a new book they had authored. I encourage you digging deeper – much to be learned and acted upon.

BOSTON MARATHON UPDATE

This April I’m running the Boston Marathon, running for the benefit of the American Liver Foundation. At least 6 times a year I donate blood platelets to Red Cross. What a great feeling of “making a difference” that drives me. Then, I ran the NYC Marathon last year to raise money to beat cancer. I decided that I should look for others to help. 25% of Americans are being diagnosed with fatty liver disease, and 10% are children. I’m racing this Boston Marathon so I can run with my sister Valerie Murphy, her first Boston and she qualified! I’m asking for you to help and “make a difference” by donating. Thanks to the support of such great friends I am already 60% closer to my goal. Thank you!

PRODUCT FEATURE OF THE MONTH

The audio “Jack Me Up” contains the 21 top takeaway action items from the full day sales Workshop we present world-wide, that will enhance your abilities to open new business and grow the business you have. It retails regularly for $40. We are specially pricing it at 50% off at $20 to get your sales off to a robust start. Call Jennifer at 888-298-6868 to place your order.