There’s no rest when you’re riding on flat ground.

Bob Schultek My good friend is a passionate biker, and an entrepreneur.  He often uses his cycling experience to make a point about business. We were discussing the rapid evolution of technology as a driver of competition when Mike uttered: “Intense competition is the new normal, and there’s no time to rest. Bikers prefer to ride in hilly country – it’s a hard ride up and restful ride down. But when you ride on flat …

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Recognize these distracted listening habits?

Bob Schultek Last week, we discussed how active listeners get what they deserve: actionable information, profitable orders and enduring relationships. It takes commitment and practice to become an active listener, and we shared some tips to help develop your active listening skills. In response to those of you who asked for some examples of poor listening habits, I offer the following: Interrupting the speaker frequently Prematurely judging what is being said Saying little and providing …

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Active Listeners Get What They Deserve

  Listening is not a passive act. In our world of perpetual urgency, being  an active listener makes you distinctive – it’s a competitive  advantage. In fact, prospects cite engaged listening as a key reason  they choose to work with one supplier versus another. Active listening communicates respect for the speaker, and his or her  time. It maximizes the productivity of your interaction with your  customers or your personnel.Learning to be an active listener starts …

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Finding Capacity To Grow

Bob Schultek Keeping your operation synchronized with your growing business is an incessant challenge. While you focus on getting more orders and getting the work completed, your growth keeps nagging at you to ensure that your operations are keeping up with your progress.Various processes need refinement, but you can’t find time to get to this. You’re considering hiring more personnel but need flexibility and wonder how much additional support would be needed if your processes …

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Happy Blog-day?

Bob Schultek Twelve months ago, my weekly Friday blogs were launched. Thank you to  all who have commented on my posts. Your thoughts and suggestions have helped me learn while I strive to be a better writer…it’s a work in  progress! Please continue to share your comments and ideas for blog  topics. I will respond personally to each and work to continually improve the blog content. Happy Blog-day!Writing the blog is important to me. After earning 30+ years of …

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Why Grolistic No-Excuses Growth?

Those of you who follow this blog know that I’m always preaching that your brand message should communicate your unique value. So now, you may get a kick out of knowing that my associates and I are taking a dose of our own medicine.Three years ago, our three growth businesses – GrowthPointe, DecisionPointe and PointeVierge – began collaborating under the umbrella name of TriPointe. You may have never noticed this since we did not follow …

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Is Keeping Your Promise Obsolete?

Jerry is CEO of a manufacturing company.  They have multiple facilities and he wonders how best to remain engaged with his employees at their various sites. He understands the value of keeping everyone on the team “lashed together” to produce value for customers and to achieve shared company and customer goals.They decide to initiate a new program based on quarterly roundtable meetings held with departments and at each facility.  The personnel at each site choose …

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Inspire Profitable Growth

Bill runs a $12 million manufacturing company.  To sustain passion and engagement among his employees, he encourages them to share their new product concepts or process improvement ideas.  Each quarter, he presents a small award for the idea that proves to generate its promised financial benefits for the company.Every development or process improvement proposal must include a projected quantifiable benefit for the company that either increases revenue (sales, throughput, productivity), or reduces costs or inventory …

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Lash Together To Achieve Goals

Jerry is CEO of a manufacturing company. They have multiple facilities and he wonders how best to remain engaged with his employees at their various sites. He understands the value of keeping everyone on the team “lashed together” to produce value for customers and to achieve shared company and customer goals. They decide to initiate a new program based on quarterly roundtable meetings held with departments and at each facility. The personnel at each site …

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Take It To The Street

“Take It To The Street” For Better Results Russ tells me that he would like to solicit feedback from his direct sales team regarding a new strategy, but he prefers to keep them focused on hitting their quotas. In another organization, Brad believes that the independent reps and distributors who report to him just want to sell.  But even if they wanted to offer suggestions, there is no established forum available for them to do …

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