Hosting an Open House

Has your business hosted an open house?

AlphaKOR hosted one recently with great success.   Having hosted several open houses over the years it is always rewarding to see how much support is given by clients, prospects, business associates, family and friends.  Hats off to the AlphaKOR team!!!

Open houses can be fun and yet business focused at the same time.   This time around we combined two events; we hosted the Windsor Executives Association for lunch and rolled into the Open House afterwards.

It was a great opportunity for us to show our guests some of the solutions we have implemented.   Everyone liked the mobile sports trivia application and the fingerprint time/clock software was a big hit.  

Our post-survey indicated the open house was well received and many learned a lot about AlphaKOR.   Those who attended really appreciated our depth of services and technological innovation.

Looking forward to the next Open House!  

The Morphing of the Circle

A special thanks to Frank for inviting me to guest blog on Building Circles.  

Frank and I have known each other for more than 3 years – starting out as network acquaintances, moving to a client relationship and going further to become friends where we also hang out together with our spouses.   

When I reflect, I like to think about that Circle is always building or growing or morphing.  It can almost be described as an aura.

Take your business as a Circle – it certainly does not sit stagnant...it grows, it moves, it’s focus develops, it’s client change while all at the same time, keeping together around your business.

Take your network as a Circle – it evolves, it morphs as your business grows, it actually changes as YOU change and grow.  Some people slip out, while others slip in.  This works.  Your network needs to have life.

Take Yourself as a Circle – you grow, you morph, you exude energy, you radiate, you attract.  This is your special genius – who you are.  Your circle starts with the definition of you.  And you never stop evolving.

As leaders in our business and our community, we need to know that circles interconnect.  The do not necessarily become connected as they do overlap.  This creates great opportunity for sharing resources, ideas, talent and alignment of values making what was once small, now larger.

Spend a few minutes today drawing out your circles.  See where they overlap.  Determine if there are any holes in the outline. (Think holes as missed processes, people overlooked, projects derailed)   

What can you do to make your ever-morphing circle fluid?

Guest Blog Post
Lora Crestan

Solstice Group & Solution Linx Online Coaching

Leveraging Your Strengths to Build Your Business Through Coaching

 

10 Things you should learn to say

This article from CBC News lists 10 things you should learn to say.  How many do you agree with and how many do you disagree with?   What are your top things you say?

I strongly agree with #3 in always doing the right thing, asking myself #2 to do things differently to keep growing and #7 to keep focused on my value proposition.

Not too keen on #9 as all investment of time and energy are valuable and knowing when to stop or change direction to channel your time and energy in other areas makes me tend to slightly agree.

#1 is a tough one and do not see myself saying this except when the Family tells me to turn it off at home!


1.  My work doesn't define me. 

2.  What should I do differently? 

3.  Do the right thing.

4.  Tomorrow's another day. 

5.  What's the worst that can happen?

 6.  How am I doing?
 
7.  What's my value proposition?

8.  What the heck.


9.  I'm wasting my time and energy. 

10.  Hope is a terrible strategy.

For details on this article:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57469064/10-things-you-should-learn-to-say/?tag=nl.e713

How do you Qualify Opportunities?

Each of us has our own idea how to measure the success of qualifying an opportunity.  Some gauge how long the meeting was.   The longer the meeting the more successful.   My rule of thumb is 45 minutes resulting in an hour more or less.  

Some like to give away all the answers.   This can actually work against you.   Ever find yourself listening to how many challenges the prospect is having?   It is natural to answer all their questions, provide solutions and walk them through how to resolve all these issues. 

What happens when you do that?  Sometimes they say yes we will move forward with you.  More than likely they will respond with thinking it over and resolve it themselves or give the answers to their current vendor.

So where is the right balance on sales and unpaid consulting? 

Some good questions to ask during qualification stage are: 

How do you make decisions?   Who needs to approve the decision?   What is your budget?  (ever get an answer to this one?)  What is your timeframe?   Who else is bidding on this opportunity?  What kind of Return on Investment (ROI) is required to move forward?  If we could provide you with.....would you move forward with us?

There are a lot of opportunities out there and qualifying them will lead to moving forward or moving onto the next opportunity.