Business - Business Strategy

October 5, 2010

Interview with George Lucas, co-author of the book The One Minute Negotiator: Simple Steps to Reach Better Agreements

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Mike Carruthers:
The whole idea of negotiating turns a lot of people off. But it has a lot to do with how you look at negotiating.

George Lucas:
A negotiation is the process through which 2 parties, whose initial positions don’t match up, work at an effort to reach an agreement.
 

September 9, 2010

Interview with Chris St. Hilaire, author of the book 27 Powers of Persuasion: Simple Strategies to Seduce Audiences & Win Allies

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Mike Carruthers:
When you want to be persuasive the words you use are very important.

Chris St. Hilaire:
Accidents don’t sell newspapers, tragic accidents sell newspapers and so using language that creates a picture in people’s minds helps you sell your point.
 

September 8, 2010

Interview with Chris St. Hilaire, author of the book 27 Powers of Persuasion: Simple Strategies to Seduce Audiences & Win Allies

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Mike Carruthers:
Being persuasive is a skill, which you can get better at by employing some interesting and effective techniques.

Chris St. Hilaire:
You know one thing I counsel people on is removing the “buts” from their sentences. When someone says I don’t disagree with you what’s the next word out of their mouth? But.
 

August 25, 2010

Interview with Tommy Spaulding, author of the book It's Not Just Who You Know: Transform Your Life (and Your Organization) by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships

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Mike Carruthers:
The book how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie has helped millions of people become more successful; however…

Tommy Spaulding:
As good as some of the content is, I now find it pretty manipulative. Winning friends and influencing people is just really about how to get people to do things for you for your self-promotion and your self-gain.

August 23, 2010

Interview with Adrian Ott, author of the book The 24-Hour Customer: New Rules for Winning in a Time-Starved, Always-Connected Economy

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Mike Carruthers:
In the attempt to win new customers, businesses tend to focus on price, product quality, customer service, that type of thing…

Adrian Ott:
But they don’t think about the time constraints that customers have. And if you can time slice or time shift your product, sometimes you’re going to reach some people that you haven’t reached before.
 

July 14, 2010

Interview with Ivan Misner, author of the book Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections

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Mike Carruthers:
Getting out and meeting new people is important for anyone in business but it’s not always easy or natural.

Ivan Misner:
I have found that most business people are basically cave dwellers and they can’t figure out why no one is referring them. Well networking is a contact sport; you’ve got to get belly to belly with people. 
 

July 13, 2010

Interview with Ivan Misner, author of the book Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections

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Mike Carruthers:
Everyone who has a job has heard about the importance of networking.

Ivan Misner:
And networking has been around a long time but it’s been practiced badly. Whether people don’t understand it and the reason for that is that we don’t teach this in colleges and universities. We give kids bachelor’s degrees in marketing – they don’t have a clue how to network and they totally confuse networking with direct selling.
 

Ivan Misner, author of the book Networking Like a Pro...

You go to a business mixer somebody walks up to you and says, “Hi, my name’s John, you know we should be doing business.” And they try to sell rather than build relationships. Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It’s about cultivating professional relationships with other people and developing trust. People prefer people they know and trust.

How do you build those relationships? Ivan says it’s basically a 3-step process called V, C, P.

Stands for visibility, credibility, and profitability – you first have to be visible in the community; people have to know who you are and what you do. Then you have to establish credibility. Credibility is where people know who you are, they know what you do and they know you’re good at it. And only when you’ve gotten to credibility can you get to profitability where people know who you are, they know what you do, they know you’re good at it and they’re willing to pass referrals to you on an ongoing reciprocal basis. Where networking goes bad is where people try to jump ahead.

Jumping ahead is tempting because effective networking takes time. How much time?

It varies by profession but as a rule we tell people you’re looking at 6 months or more.
 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here

July 1, 2010

Interview with Nancy Lublin, author of the book Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business

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Mike Carruthers:
Not for profit organizations and charities have often been criticized for not acting more like a real business.

Nancy Lublin:
But I also think businesses need to behave more like not for profits. There are things that we do to stretch a dollar and stretch our team that businesses could really learn from.
 

June 8, 2010

Interview with Tony Schwartz, author of the book The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

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Mike Carruthers:
To be effective, productive, and to maintain your energy level there appears to be some wisdom in the idea that you should pace yourself.

Tony Schwartz:
What the research really tells us about the ideal way to work is to alternate periods of high focus with periods of renewal.

June 7, 2010

Interview with Tony Schwartz, author of the book The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

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Mike Carruthers:
You’re energy is the fuel that gets you through the day, but here’s the problem…

Tony Schwartz:
We are really good at spending energy and it’s the thing that gets valued in this world, and we tend not to take seriously the importance of renewing or restoring our energy.