Business Maturity

Mature businesses show their maturity through consistency. In other words they are reliable. It’s odd to receive calls from suppliers on behalf of well known organizations that cannot keep an appointment. What does this say about your company? It’s not appealing. People’s time is valuable. You should keep the appointment although you may not be interested because it’s your word, you’ll learn more, and establish trust.

How about guiding the customer through a well defined process and tweaking it as needed to serve the client? By telling them what happens instead of creating a black hole it’s easier for them to tell others about your business.

Ways to keep and gain from appointments:
1. Prepare for the appointment: What are the discussion points? What needs to be researched?
2. Keep the appointment: Don’t make too many because you will feel rushed.
3. Be willing to listen to achieve breakthrough results
4. Recap what were the key points of interest and the next step
5. After completion critique yourself. What can you reuse? What do you need to work on (hone)? What do you need to cut out?
6. How can you say it better to communicate more effectively?
7. Follow through. Usually it takes a combination of appointments to create the best solution.

Surely, this is worth your time because look at the amount you learn. We learn from books, magazines, videos, etc. however, don’t forget we also learn from people. They know how to navigate their organization and they need to be told a process to ensure it’s a growing relationship where both parties benefit over time not just a one-time transaction.
I’m sure without doing the above there has been success. However, it’s inconsistent. By being consistent you feel in control. Once you have control, adding quantity and speed is easier because you know you’ll receive consistently successful results not the haphazard success. This is when it becomes fun because who doesn’t like more success. Your brain functions optimally instead of tiring.

I like to play sports. Having a ball to focus on and helping teammates win makes it rewarding to me. I can play for hours. However, jogging (running) bores me. It always has. So I tried the above approach because I wanted to succeed in something that’s good for me yet difficult for me to do. Yes, I can run a mile sometime at a good pace with no problems yet sometime I tire after less than half a mile. What happens? The inconsistency is nerve racking.

Here’s what I did to make it better.
1. Walk for a quarter mile to warm up.
2. Go at a consistent slower pace with the mindset (set of mental thoughts). For me those are "pace", "get in the zone", "in a groove", "run". Although I want to run faster and can, it’s important to stay consistent with the slower pace.
3. Walk a quarter mile to warm down and stretch
4. Repeat it five times before increasing speed or distance.
5. Now that I’ve laid a foundation. I can build upon it.

I’ve increased both distance (two miles) and speed (time it). It helps when I play sports. I now like to jog (run).

Gain business maturity by being consistent. I know you want more on demand success versus the haphazard success and fizzle. See you winning at entrepreneurship.