How to Answer the Phone ...

The telephone is often the first opportunity you have to impress a new customer. As the saying goes “You only get one chance to make a good first impression”. How good and consistently is the phone answered in your business? Here are a few tips:

1. Answer the phone after the same number of rings each time;

2. Answer the phone the same way each time;

3. Develop a Phone Script and train your team to use it … every time;

4. Smile as you answer the phone – it costs nothing and transmits a message that you are pleased to talk to this person;

5. Look upwards as you answer the phone – it clears your airways and makes your speech sound more relaxed;

6. Listen well to the caller. If someone tries to distract you, ask the caller to wait so you can give them your undivided attention;

7. Repeat back to them important points of the conversation;

8. Wherever possible ask open-ended questions that can start with: what, who, where, when, how or why;

9. Always be positive even when delivering bad news.

 If you would like a copy of the Brightwater Phone Answering Work Instruction & Script, please send an email to bizplan@brightwater.com.au with 'PHONE' in the subject line. In addition, if you'd like a personal assessment of your phone answering style/script, include your phone number as well.

Anthony Davis

What's Possible?

Two recent Client examples have reinforced why we love doing what we do and the omnipotent power of you asking yourself the question “What’s Possible?” Are you the “cause” of your results or are they caused for or upon you?

The first Client believed they could not afford to engage Brightwater and did so anyway. They approached the Brightwater Program with a “What’s Possible” attitude. After 11 months of a 2-year program they wrote this testimonial:

“… we started this program being a little tentative towards the cost and benefit of the program … We now can say that after only 11 months in the program we have grown to the point that we are now generating additional income over 10 times the cost of the Brightwater Program each week.”

The second are retailers who had always conservatively set a 10% budget increase, year-on-year. After 6 months in the Brightwater Program, their “What’s Possible” attitude has them achieving a whopping 36+% increase over last year.

Consider the outcomes from taking responsibility for “What’s Possible” in your business. The prose below is highly appropriate.

Responsibility starts with the willingness to experience self as ‘cause’. It starts with a willingness to have the experience of yourself as ‘cause’ in the matter. Responsibility starts with the willingness to deal with the situation from and with the point of view, whether at the moment realized or not, that you are the source of what you are what you do and what you have. This point of view extends to include even what is done to you and ultimately what another does to another . Werner Erhard

To discover “What’s Possible” for you and your business, take advantage of a Complimentary 1 hour one-on-one Business Coaching session (in person or Skype).  Please send an email to bizplan@brightwater.com.au with 'What's Possible' in the subject line and we will contact you to make a time or call 1800 242 366 to make an appointment. (Available to the first 20 people to respond.)

** WIN a BUSINESS BOOST COACHING PACKAGE **

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Anthony Davis

6 D's for Achieving Outcomes

A simple formula for maximising your time and effectiveness:

· Dump it - if it’s not adding value – be ruthless by eliminating distractions and low priority tasks. This can even include some meetings. Focus on what is Important.
· Delegate – (Business Boost 81) what’s not yours or what you don’t have to do. You may just find that someone else not only does it better … you elevate them by asking.
· Decide When – set a time and date that you will use to guide you to ensure completion. Be realistic in setting timelines.
· Diarise – if you can’t do it now, getting it out of your head will allow you to focus clearly on the task at hand. Active ‘to-do lists’ are important for a busy mind.
· Do it – a job worth doing is worth doing poorly! Don’t put it off to a better time or wait to get it perfect. Start now, the momentum will carry you through to completion.
· Delight in Your Day – acknowledge and celebrate even your smallest achievements as well as those of your team. Acknowledge behaviours you want more of!

Business Boost 81 addresses Delegation. If you would like a copy of this Business Boost, please send an email to bizplan@brightwater.com.au with 'Boost 81' in the subject line. 

Thanks to Powerful Practices for this Minute.

A Business Coach - select the right one ...

Coach, Mentor, Adviser … each different and in some ways the same.

So what are you looking for? Unless you know what it is you want to achieve, you risk having a Coach set you on a path to achieve what they think you should as opposed to what you really want.

Two things to look for in selecting your Coach:

1. Experience - Once you have an idea of what you want (remembering that you don’t know what you don’t know) you can find a Coach who has achieved this for others. Beware of the “industry specialist” unless you want to be like all the others in your industry;
2. A Structured Approach – ensure they have a structured system that is used to support you to achieve outcomes.

Without a structured approach or system/program your coaching experience is likely to focus on your ‘issue’ at the moment. You tell them what is wrong and they give you a band-aid for the issue. This fails to provide a sustainable solution for your business.

Another benefit a coach should bring is a network of experts.

If you would like to discover what makes Brightwater Business Coaching stand out, simply call 1800 242 366 for a no obligation conversation.

Anthony Davis

A quote from Anthony ...

Business Coaching

Let’s start with the concept of Coaching. Every sportsman who has achieved greatness has had a Coach. It is not unusual to hear of a swimming coach, a football coach, a netball coach … the list goes on.

More recently Life Coaching has become quite popular.

Business Coaching has developed from the regulated Consulting industry with many Consultants having an engineering background. Coaches in many cases were retrenched middle-managers who bought a coaching Franchise and set themselves up as Business Coaches.

Every Business Owner goes into business to be successful and yet few are prepared to engage in any form of coaching unlike the sportspeople mentioned above. Coaching does demand a level of trust as honesty will be important in achieving outcomes.

Business Coaching is not the same as Mentoring. Mentoring involves a developmental relationship between a more experienced "mentor" and a less experienced partner/client, and typically involves sharing of advice.

A Business Coach can act as a mentor given that he or she has adequate expertise and experience. However, mentoring is not a form of business coaching.

Next time, we will discuss how to select the right one.

Written by Anthony Davis