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Dave Ferguson Articles

Written by: Dave Ferguson

Uniqueness Can Add Tremendous Value to You and Your Business - Click To Read Article
Adding value, from a business standpoint, is supposed to be all about giving more to your customers, putting more into your products, and increasing and/or improving your services. Done properly you would think a well-tooled business should be able to beat the competition, increase market share, and increase profits. But, that is not always the case...

Seven Steps To An Attitude Transplant - Click To Read Article
I can’t go 30 minutes anymore without hearing someone whining about the economy. While I can understand the folks on the local and cable news channels dwelling on the negative, I have a hard time understanding why a business owner or manager would. If you’re one of those who are on this negative bandwagon or just someone who needs some guidance, you’ve come to the right place.

What Coaching Is - Click To Read Article
Last week I introduced you to coaching and started to outline for you what coaches do and how coaching works. I explained that coaching is an intangible service, that it’s future driven, how important the relationship is between a coach and client, why passion is required from both of them, and how educational coaching can be. Today, I am going to continue with more of what coaching is:

What Coaching Isn't - Click To Read Article
I hope over the past two weeks you’ve gotten a good idea of what Business & Life Coaching is. I know I’ve sparked some new interest, as several readers have called and/or emailed me. Thank you for your interest. Marketing is all about education and I believe education is something we all must be getting constantly. Think about that and your business. Today, I would like to share with you what I believe coaching isn’t. I know what you’re thinking right now. You’re thinking, why would he have to write about this, isn’t it just the opposite of what coaching is? While some of that may be true, let’s look at what coaching truly isn’t:

Time For Your Check-Up! - Click To Read Article
If you care about your health, most likely you see your physician for a check-up, at least once per year. As your coach (well, at least through my writings), I’d like to complete a goal check-up with you today. If you are like most business owners, you set some sort of 2011 goals for your business, either in late 2010 or in January of 2011. Unfortunately, if you are like most, you also haven’t paid attention to those goals much.

Reap Rewards with the Right Reputation - Click To Read Article
We’ve all heard the old cliche, “Under-Promise and Over-Deliver”. It’s easier said than done, isn’t it? Today, in these challenging economic times, many people tend to promise prospective customers more so they perceive the value as better than what a competitor can offer. Those same people also enjoy over-promising to make themselves feel more valued. Do they not think these actions will come back to haunt them? The overall point I’d like to make today is that we cannot build a reputation for ourselves or our company by what we say we can do. We build good reputations by delivering what our customers need.

Recruit and Hire the Right People for Success - Click To Read Article
Your people are, without a doubt, your greatest asset. As Jim Collins so eloquently put it in his book, titled Good to Great….”To be successful you have to get the right people on the bus with you”….and as I like to say, you need to be the person with the steering wheel in your hands.Most small businesses get in the habit of hiring people when they need them TOMORROW, rather than recruiting people all the time and having a pool of ready to go prospects...

The Business Coaching Perspective - Click To Read Article
Often I am asked general questions around coaching, so I thought I would be a good idea to commit a few columns to some general education about Business & Life coaching, from my perspective. As you may remember from some of my prior columns, I define marketing as “the constant education of your target audience.” I remind you of this, so you understand that I am not deliberately marketing to you through this educational piece.

Three “A’s” to Total Success - Click To Read Article
While personally I don’t see our economy changing much at all this year, any of you who read my column on a regular basis know how I feel about the economy helping us with our business lives. If you wait for the economy to help your business, chances are your business won’t be around; if and when the economy rebounds. So what can and should you do? Adopting these three habits will get you off to a strong start toward changing your business and your life:

Use Your Time Effectively and Accomplish More! - Click To Read Article
We are all one big habit. From the time we get up in the morning to the way we treat people. Each of us has the choice to be one big bad habit or one big effective and thriving habit. If you chose the latter having Time Management skills are a must. Unfortunately Time Management is a skill many of us seem to learn and use only through necessity. When we use Time Management from a reactive standpoint, usually bad habits creep in and we end up not using the skill to its full potential.

Leading Through Challenges - Click To Read Article
Today, we are facing many challenges in our business and personal lives. As leaders, these challenges come at us constantly and to be effective we must ensure we are “doing the right things” to lead through them. Sometimes challenges come at us, like a storm that comes from nowhere on a summer evening, and you’re in the middle of a lake (not that it’s ever happened to me).

Get The Most Out Of Coaching - Click To Read Article
The past four weeks, I have outlined for readers what I believe Business & Life Coaching is and isn’t, and also challenged you by asking if you’re ready for coaching. Today, we complete this series by assuming you are ready. So, here we go!

Networking 101: Are You Networking Smart? - Click To Read Article
I’ve always enjoyed and borrowed the phrase, “If you’re not planning, you’re planning to fail.” In regards to business, I like to say, “If you’re not networking smart, your networking is a waste.” Today, I’m sharing with you, free of charge, some of what we teach in our SMART NETWORKING Module. These are absolute networking MUSTS for anyone serious about meeting the right people...

Market Strategy Essential Today! - Click To Read Article
The great Thomas Jefferson once said, “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” My twist on that is, “The business owner, sales professional, self-employed professional, salesperson, etc, that stops marketing is a person guaranteed to fail. I have found the biggest failures around marketing are due to the general misconceptions around what marketing really is. The truth is, there is a big difference between advertising and marketing. In our Sales to Marketing Bootcamp, we clearly define and separate the two.

Fire-Up Your Employees - Click To Read Article
Do your employees need a boost of energy? Are they lacking motivation or inspiration? Could they use some fire underneath them? Sometimes motivational words just won’t cut it. Employees are looking for much more. Investing in the good ones can go a long way, today and in the future. If you can truly energize employees, they will drink the company kool-aid and your bottom line will be better off for it.

Are You Ready For Coaching - Click To Read Article
If and when you are considering whether or not to hire a coach, you are actually deciding if you are ready to embark on a grand adventure. Coaching is not for everyone and even highly coachable people have times in their lives when coaching may not be what they really want or need. Here are a few important questions I ask prospective clients to ask themselves before making a decision:

Three Habits Of Successful People I Know - Click To Read Article
Lately, I’ve met and heard from a lot of people that are really excited about rebounding their business and personal lives in 2011. I honestly don’t recall seeing this much enthusiasm in awhile. I think I’ve got goose-bumps!

More To Walking The Talk - Click To Read Article
When you and your team are committed to your mission daily through the right activities and you keep your vision in view, “walking the talk” should be a piece of cake, right? It’s really not that easy. Last week, we discussed five characteristics I believe a company must exhibit to follow through on what it says it’s going to do. Today, I’d like to add a few more ways you can ensure you and your company is “walking the talk.”

Crossing Your Street Of Success - Click To Read Article
Regardless of what we read about in periodicals or hear on TV, none of us really know where our economy is going. While I have studied economics and on occasion have made some sound economic predictions, I am not an economist. Therefore, I cannot, nor am I going to, predict when we will see an upturn. I will, however, go way out on a limb and predict we will see some form of an upturn soon, followed by what could be many years of peaks and valleys.

Are YOU Walking The Talk? - Click To Read Article
When you create vision and mission statements for your company you are communicating to your customers, vendors, prospects, employees, and the entire outside world. When we create these visions and missions, we are creating value statements, and as an owner or manager you have to deliver, with those values, results! I like to call that “Walking the Talk”. There is no doubt that companies that consistently “Walk their Talk” do better than those that don’t.

Get In The "Effectiveness" Groove - Click To Read Article
As a leader, it’s important to have a well-organized and disciplined approach to your work and your personal life. Taking time to organize and prioritize at work and at home will help ensure you have the energy and focus you need to lead effectively.

Need More Sales? Upgrade Your Sales Team - Click To Read Article
What do good sales people look like. Here are the Top 10 characteristics for them.

Add Uniquness to your Business - Click To Read Article
Be unique and your business value will go up.

Begin with the end in mind - Click To Read Article
Its all about Vision

Evolve Your Strategic Mindset - Click To Read Article
Get your mind right and your business will follow

Time Management Habits that Reward You - Click To Read Article
Time Management Tips

Networking Practices That Work - Click To Read Article
Tips for effective networking

Get Prepared for the Upturn - Click To Read Article
Tips to get your ready for the upturn in the economy

Does Your Team have the Right Sales Plan? - Click To Read Article
Salesplans

Your Business Can Survive this Economy - Click To Read Article
10 Business Survival Tips

Sell More Now - Click To Read Article
You can sell more in this economy...really!

Managing Through Challenging Times - Click To Read Article
Tips to manage through this economy

Do you need an Attitude Transplant? - Click To Read Article
7 Steps towards and attitude transplant.

Evalulate your Sales Team - Click To Read Article
You should always be evaluating your sales team

Teach your Sales Team to Qualify and Sales will Increase - Click To Read Article
Qualifying leads in its easiest form

The Five "Be's" of Customer Service - Click To Read Article
Get Customer Service right with these 5 simple practices.

Coaching through the Recession - Click To Read Article
Tips to get businesses through the recession.

A Compass for Your Vision - Click To Read Article
What's your companies vision?

Cold Calling for Business Owners - Click To Read Article
Simple networking practices for business owners and managers.

The Do's and Dont's of Influencing Others - Click To Read Article
Different forms of influencing Others.





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