In this issue:

Motivating goals and how to construct them

Books of the month

Getting return on investment from training

    ISSUE 6 • Winter QUARTER • Feb 2007

I often ask clients why is it important to them to achieve their business development goals. Quite often what I get back are what I call laudable goals. Laudable goals are not the type of goal that motivates someone to head to an after-hours dinner with clients over heading home to partners and family.

I’m afraid that my view is that without a compelling and personal vision of what being successful at business development would get them it is unlikely that business development activities will ever move to the top of their "to do" list. 

Would you like to build your own business development  motivation? Then I recommend you are crystal clear on what reaching your business development goals will get for you.
If you're not sure what I mean, let me offer some examples:

• You'll increase your compensation and be able to fund something important to you, like being able to take your partner on an African safari next summer.

• You'll be promoted to the management team where you can advocate changes that you believe are required.

• An away-from goal might be that you won't have to continue to work with your least favourite client or with your boring co-worker.

• You'll have a portable skill and a sense of personal freedom.

• You'll sleep better at night. You know they won’t make you redundant.

• You'll have less billable hour pressure. Maybe go and see your son play cricket?

• You'll have more interesting work as you can turn down those clients you hate.

Did you notice how each of these reasons is specific and personal?
In my experience that's the key to being really motivating.

Setting a goal to buy a beautiful holiday home is much more motivating than just saying "I want to make more money".

A chance to work on the deals you love is much more engaging than doing more interesting work.

So what's your reason for wanting to be successful at business development?

Take a few minutes to envision the most vivid picture you can as to why growing your funnel of business is important to you.

Once you've created your own compelling vision, I suspect you'll find your enthusiasm renewed.

Whenever you find yourself putting those business building activities off, remind yourself what you'll get by putting your plan into action.
That should be all the inspiration you need to keep moving towards your business development goals. Good Rainmaking!

Books of the month

To most business managers this suggests that having the local press take pictures of them burning £50 notes might be a better way of using their money…

Most managers know that training their people just has to make sense. They believe in the old saying “If you think training is expensive then try ignorance”.  
How do they ensure that they get a return on investment from people development?

Here are a few tried and tested tips designed to have you get the best you possibly can..

1. Set a clear intent.
What is it that you want your people to be able to do differently as a result of the activities? Write it down. Ask yourself "How would someone uninvolved measure the success?"

2. Link it to the business plan.
Check that it is linked to the plan. (If you don't have a plan then that's a different story and we may be able to help) If it isn’t linked to the plan then just ask why are you doing it again. If it is linked then make sure that the attendees of the training course understand the importance of their picking up the knowledge and skills for them and for the rest of the team.   

3. Check that there are no rocks on the team's runway.
Make sure that once the team return from the training that they are clear to take off and get going in the new way with their new skills. If there are any rocks on their runway then it is your task to get the team working on moving them, before the team take any training.

4. Time the activity to perfection
 If the team cannot come straight out of the training activities and go straight into a new way of working with their new skills then please reschedule the activities, even if that means paying your supplier cancellation or rescheduling fees. There is no point training people early because with a monthly decay rate of 80% if they are not using it they will forget it.

5. Provide ongoing coaching and reinforcement
If the managers do not positively reinforce the new skills and behaviours then people’s natural tendency is to slip back into old habits. Coaching from their managers or external coaches ensures that the new habits and better approaches are the ones that remain.

If you take these five aspects of training and development into account when you are planning the activities we’re sure you’ll see a return in your training investment.

If you want to see our training and development offerings click this link…

20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did.
Throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. 
Explore. Dream. Discover.   Mark Twain

Mike Meyer on organising your customer data to support your processes

"Think not of yourself as the architect of your career but as the sculptor.
Expect to have to do a lot of hard hammering, chiselling, scraping and polishing."

B.C. Forbes (1880-1954)
Scottish journalist & founder of Forbes magazine