Visitor, your JANUARY 2017 FocalPoint Newsletter is here

There are major social, economic, and technological movements impacting 2017. Let’s look at 9 major trends we see on the horizon.

1. Empowerment and enabling people at every level will be your key to success.  Centralized decision making and hierarchical command and control is crumbling.  An engaged self-motivated and engaged team will be your key to growth and even survival in a different workplace and marketplace.
2. Removal of Friction in the Shopping Experience  Amazon Go’s no-cashiers, no-checkout store in Seattle is showing what empowered technology is going to do for retailers and others who make the shopping experience seamless: Walk in. Walk out. No lines, no cashiers. No, seriously, check out this Amazon Go Video to see it in action.
3. End-to-end prospect engagement and monitoring. You must engage website visitors and help them smoothly navigate their journey from prospect to customer to raving fan.
4. Social media will be the place to advertise. With more than 1 billion people active on Facebook and 100 million using Instagram every month, the social media will become primary advertising platforms.
5. Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn will expand advertising opportunities. Microsoft is planning several priority integrations between its legacy brand and LinkedIn.
6. Innovation will accelerate; external collaboration and consultation are essential. Innovation isn’t new, but as we emerge from the Great Recession, the pace of change is accelerating at an increasing rate.
7. Artificial Intelligence and Big Data will change how you market, what you build, and where your company adds value. Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) will increasingly be used to improve and revolutionize every aspect of business.
8. Video will become essential to prospecting and sales success. People process video about 60,000 times faster than written content; it is the new norm for marketing.
9. Mobile is where it is and where it’s going. Constantly harried, today’s consumer is looking at your content and messages on the go. Are your advertising and Internet platforms keeping pace?
10. A New Administration takes over in the USA. It appears likely there will be a colossal change in direction on offshoring, tax laws, repatriation of earnings, environmental laws, minimum wage, health care, education and immigration. All spell opportunity as where there is change, there will be opportunities for your business.

The last political campaign season with its negative advertising brought a question to mind: Why do negative ads work and what are the implications for you and your business?

We are wired to pay more attention to bad outcomes and respond far less strongly to good. Evolution meant you had to survive to reproduce. Therefore, we have developed a clear neural bias toward paying more attention to something bad and remembering it longer. A related principle is that we fear loss of something more than appreciate having it.

But in practical terms, how can you use this knowledge?

First, knowing the human bias toward negativism will help you re-frame situations and improve results. By understanding how others interpret and react to events gives us better insights in how to more effectively work with them, influence them, and persuade them.

Second, review your employee rewards programs knowing what you know now. Are they effective at raising morale? How might you make them more effective and rewarding?

Third, create better ads. Understanding our psychological makeup helps you improve your advertising through what you say just before you present your product, service, or argument.

Being fearful of asking others for things could be your biggest obstacle to success in life and business.

A 12-year-old Steve Jobs needed parts for a project. He found Bill Hewlett’s phone number in the white pages and called him. Steve introduced himself as a middle school student looking for a few parts. Bill laughed at Steve’s request but gave him the parts and a summer job.

When I was 10 years old I had a science project on the oil and gas industry. I needed to call people in the business. I found myself sitting with the phone and the phone book open to a list of names, but fear gripped me and I couldn’t make the calls. However, I really wanted a good grade and finally that desire trumped my fears and I made the calls.

I discovered, as did Steve Jobs, that people were more than willing to help. I got far more information than I needed.

Do you have this fear? If you can shift your mindset and a focus on the good that can happen when they ask others for help, it will open more doors to success than you can imagine.

– By Coach Phil Gilkes

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is not a topic that an entrepreneur focuses on. However, when other factors are equal, why do some ventures struggle to survive while others thrive? It may be due to the entrepreneurs’ soft skills or the emotional skills.

Entrepreneurs who are emotionally intelligent are adept at maintaining good morale in the workplace. They have good relations with customers and other stakeholders. Smart employers often value EI over IQ because:

• Employees (with high EI) are more likely to stay calm under pressure,
• Employees know how to resolve conflict effectively,
• Employees are empathetic to their team members and react accordingly,
• Employees lead by example, and
• Employees tend to make more thoughtful business decisions.

Does your EI need a boost? Here are four traits fundamental to EI:

• Self-awareness. To develop self-awareness, start by noticing how you feel in a variety of situations.
• Self-regulation. Think of better ways of responding to emotional cues that lead to happier outcomes.
• Empathy. While sympathy refers to feeling for others, empathy is an emotion that feels with others.
• Social skills. Good inter-personal skills stem from controlling one's own emotions and being able to tune into how others feel.

When you increase your company's EI, you improve its productivity, lower turnover and increase your bottom line. It's easy and fast if you have the skills to assess the problem areas and the knowledge and tools to change how people interact as manager and coworkers. If you'd like to move your EI from red to green, give me a call right now and see a change in your business take place in just a couple of days.

The Law of Reversal says: Putting yourself in the situation of the other person enables you to prepare and negotiate more effectively.

Before any negotiation that involves a good deal of money or a large number of details, use the “lawyer’s method” of reverse preparation. This is a great technique that dramatically sharpens your negotiating skills. In law school, student lawyers are often given a case to either prosecute or defend as an exercise. They are then taught to prepare the other lawyer’s case before they begin preparing their own.

You should do the same. Before you negotiate, write down everything that you think may be of concern to the person with whom you are going to be meeting. Writing things down clarifies them and enables you to see possibilities that you might otherwise have overlooked.

A powerful tactic that you can use at the beginning of the negotiation is to open with this question: “Why do you feel we are here and what would you ideally like to accomplish in this discussion?” This question will demonstrate to the other person that you are reasonable and open and interested in achieving a mutually satisfactory result.

from "THE 100 ABSOLUTELY UNBREAKABLE LAWS OF BUSINESS SUCCESS" – Brian Tracy