Management
Michael Mehlberg
Project Management Solution? Keep It Simple ...

Project management is among a top skill to master in any business; especially one wanting to grow.

Why?

Because without project management, business owners will unnecessarily run into common issues:

Project Management Solution? Keep It Simple Stupid
Productivity
Michael Mehlberg
Getting Derailed? Leave Room to Accommodate the ...

You often get derailed by "the unexpected.”

It’s inevitable.

You get interrupted an unexpected number of times daily. Those interruptions come at unexpected times. They each take an unexpected amount of time with which to deal.

That’s why it’s "the unexpected."

These interruptions kill your flow, destroy your focus, and force you to work on the urgent instead of the important.

So how do you deter, prevent, and deal with the problems these unexpected interruptions incur? 

Getting Derailed? Leave Room to Accommodate the Unexpected
Product Development
Michael Mehlberg
The Exact Value of Your Million Dollar Idea

I was shocked, hurt, and felt like my idea had been stolen. Though I had the idea first, Nintendo would be the star. Nintendo would make $millions. It took years before I was old enough to recognize the important lesson in this experience... 

The Exact Value of Your Million Dollar Idea
Business
Michael Mehlberg
Finding Your Value Despite the Competition

Are you second-guessing your next great idea? Are you downplaying the value you could provide to others? Are you upset that you found a competitor in the market who seems to be offering everything you want to (and seems to be finding great success doing it)?

It might be time to step back and realize a few important things.

Finding Your Value Despite the Competition
Productivity
Michael Mehlberg
On the Power and Freedom of Getting Yourself ...
On the Power and Freedom of Getting Yourself (and Your Business) Organized

Sales

The Most Relevant Aspects of Selling Anything to Anyone That I’ve Ever Learned

This is my son, Jack. He’s ten, and he wants an iPhone.
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The geek in me is as excited as a kid in a Chuck E. Cheese ball pit. The father in me screams “no.”
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For context, I bought my own cell phone when I turned 24. In a land of sleek and sexy Motorola Razors, my flip phone was pretty lame. Now my son wants a handheld computer with an App Store, 1000 times more power than my first PC, and a constant connection to the worldwide horrors of the Internet.
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So I told him, “if I’m gonna buy you a cell phone, you’re gonna have to sell me on it.”
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Hence began my sales lesson for ten year olds—the most relevant aspects of selling anything to anyone that I’ve ever learned—captured here for posterity and as a reminder of how the pros, the books, and experience taught me to do it.

1️⃣ Don't talk about features of the phone. I don't care. Oh, and I already have one, so I probably know about them and will be bored listening.
2️⃣ Instead, tell me how on God's green earth those features will make my life better. Then, illustrate me (the buyer) using those features. Show me a vision of skipping off happily into the distance to live a better life after my purchase.
3️⃣ I know you want one, I know your friends have one, I know you can play Fortnight on one. Ask yourself if I actually care about that. Yep, I don't. Tell me how buying you a phone will solve my problems, not yours. 
4️⃣ Think of all the objections I could ever conjure up during your sales pitch and build a response showing how and why my objections are wrong.
5️⃣ Get inside my head before you sell me. Ask yourself, what conversation am I having with myself right now? Then, figure out a way to weave my conversation into your pitch to solve my biggest problems.
6️⃣ Make it pretty, make it interesting, make it entertaining. I run an App company, a coaching biz, a blog, and have a full time job and a family. Oh, and I shuttle you and your brother to baseball 73 nights a week. If this pitch gets slow, I’ll be napping.

Next time you sell anything to anyone, even if it’s just to sell an idea on IG, try these tips for results.
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Happy selling! And wish my son good luck selling me; I’ll be the toughest buyer of all :)

About the Author

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Michael Mehlberg

HUSBAND, FATHER, ENTREPRENEUR, BUSINESS STRATEGIST, AUTHOR, FITNESS NUT, ORGANIZATION FREAK, PRODUCTIVITY JUNKIE

I help high-achieving entrepreneurs organize their brain and schedule so they can organize their life and business.

Subscribe to my free, weekly newsletter on personal excellence and business mastery that one client called “The Owners Manual to an Awesome Life.”

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Conquering The World – Chatbots Gone Wild (Infographic)

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In the early ‘90s, when personal computers could only beep and boop, you had to buy a sound card to hear realistic sound effects or music. By all measures, Creative Labs, Inc. was the undisputed king of PC sound cards, selling their Soundblaster hardware to video game enthusiasts across the country. 

Soundblaster touted 16-bit audio (later 32-bit) and multiple channels of sound as their “drool-factor.” But when I first picked up a sound card from the shelves of Circuit City (remember that store?), I was interested in it’s hidden secret: Dr. Sbaitso.  

Dr. Sbaitso may not have been the first chatbot ever created, but he was the first chatbot with whom I ever spoke. Hearing his canned digital voice tickled my geek feathers. But it wasn’t all kittens and unicorns. Dr. Sbaitso had an unrecoverable problem... 

He was quite possibly the worlds worst chatbot posing as an even worse clinical psychologist. 

Dr. Sbaitso... you were cool, but not very helpful.

Dr. Sbaitso... you were cool, but not very helpful.

More recently, chatbot have entered into consumers lives and minds with force. And for good reason. In an age where instantaneous communication is valued over human interaction, getting the answers you need from a chatbot makes good business sense. 

Given my historical interactions with Dr. Sbaitso (and equally dissapointing interactions with Amazon Alexa’s chat service), I doubted chatbots would have a positive influence on business owners. Then I came across this comprehensive infographic...

Check it out and let me know in the comments below if and how you think chatbots can help your business succeed in 2018 and beyond! 

(Posted with permission from Josh Wardini, 16Best.com)  

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On Systems for Continuous Business Improvement

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On Systems for Continuous Business Improvement

I remember the pain of losing my first sale.

I’d spent nearly $1500 on flights and hotels, taken two days out for travel, and spent another two days preparing for what I thought was going to be a slamdunk meeting.

As it turns out, if you want to slam dunk, you have to clear a path to the basket before you jump.

The funny thing was, my meeting went exceptionally well. I had my talking points, I answered all their questions, I was friendly, funny, and otherwise firing on all cylinders.

But in sales, that’s not always enough...

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The One Thing Business Owners Should Be Doing Every Day

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The One Thing Business Owners Should Be Doing Every Day

With my body aching from head to toe and hands covered in fresh blisters, the thing that hurt the most was my pride.

I tried to hide the pain from my two sons. But they could see right through my stiff posture and a fake smile.

Anybody could have. 

When you run out of strength and have to ask for help, it hurts. 

When you hear people laughing at you, it hurts more. 

When you realize that you were rowing a boat with the anchor dropped while dragging 75 pounds of seaweed through the mud, you feel like a complete and total dunce.

3 Hours Earlier…

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How to Grow Your Business with Strategic Customer Retention

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How to Grow Your Business with Strategic Customer Retention

The rising power of consumers is perhaps the biggest game-changer in the world of modern business.

People are well-informed, less tolerant of shabby service, and more specific in their demands. Digital technologies have empowered them and transformed the way businesses perceive and deal with them. Nowadays, attracting customers is just one part of the success equation.

The real work starts once you need to keep their attention and win their trust. ..

How to Turn Anxiety Into Opportunity with Business Networking

How to Turn Anxiety Into Opportunity with Business Networking

If there's one thing that makes business owners anxious, it's networking.

Some would describe it as difficult, others stressful. However, the importance of it cannot be understated.

Business networking can lead to partnerships, sales, and future contacts that can help you (and you them) in unforeseen ways. It's a necessity for any business owner, and if you do it wrong, you'll miss countless opportunities. 

So how does someone (like me) who is anxious about networking with other professionals push through? 

How to Get Unresponsive Prospects to Return Your Calls (and Emails)

How to Get Unresponsive Prospects to Return Your Calls (and Emails)

It's mind-boggling, isn't it?

You have a great meeting with a potential customer. Your presentation is on point. You answer all their questions. And they show all the buying signs. 

Before leaving, you end with a hearty handshake and promise to send more information. 

Only when you do, they don't respond.

You leave them a friendly voicemail. You shoot them another email. You remind them about your great meeting. And what do you get in return?

Nothing.

You follow up again. You ask them to call you back. You try anything to get them respond. And what do you get?

Silence.

At some point, you give up... figuring your prospect was never interested to begin with. Enough with them. On to the next client.

Sound familiar? It's happened to me dozens of times. 

Unfortunately, I learned later, I had left dozens of sales on the table.  

There's good news, though. With one simple technique, you can drastically increase the number of silent prospects that return your calls. Case in point, when I implemented this technique, my response rate increased by over 60%!

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Top 7 Small Business Topic Posts of the Year

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Top 7 Small Business Topic Posts of the Year

I’m a big believer in looking back, reflecting on what has gone well, and building on that in the new year to get closer to my goals.

When I look at Modern da Vinci, the growth we’ve seen is incredible. It’s a sign that we’re on the right track, but more importantly, it’s a sign that the small business community is as vibrant as ever.

Here are some incredible statistics from 2016:

  • Average reading time is up 21.45% over last year.
  • Bounce rate is down 35.14%.
  • 521.74% more page views this year over 2015.
  • 850.70% increase in new visitors in 2016!

These statistics are obviously exciting for Seth and me here at Modern da Vinci. But more so, these statistics should make you proud. Proud to be a small business owner. Proud to be part of an ongoing conversation with owners like yourself, all learning and growing together.

We’re excited for what’s to come in 2017. We’re looking forward to growing more with you and finding new small business owners like yourself to learn from.

But before we end 2016, it’s worth reviewing the top posts in each of the five areas for a growing, thriving small business.

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How to Delight Customers on this Small Business Saturday

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How to Delight Customers on this Small Business Saturday

It's Small Business Saturday, and today's the day when small businesses like yours get to fight for your share of the pie.

And the pie is quite large.

In 2015, over 95 million people spent $16.2 billion (with a B) in small businesses and more than 55% of Americans were aware of the holiday! This year, some project small businesses can look to claim nearly $18 billion in receipts, a 10% increase over last year [Grasshopper Blog – Small Business Saturday Statistics].

Whether you've prepared for this day or not, it's too late to adjust course now. It's too late to develop a new marketing campaign, and too late to create flyers for some new sale. 

But it's not too late (even if you are reading this at the end of the day) to do a few simple things that will delight your customers, getting them spending more money, getting them to share the word with friends and family, and ultimately attracting more customers to your business.

How to Win More Negotiations by Changing Your Conflict Style

How to Win More Negotiations by Changing Your Conflict Style

When a conflict arises, most people have a default approach for how they handle the situation. Many of us are not conscious of our conflict style; we respond automatically without giving thought to the circumstances.

This is significant in the context of negotiations. A negotiation is a type of conflict – a situation where your concerns and interests are not aligning with those of another person, and you are actively seeking a solution.

Understanding your tendencies in responding to conflict, and how you may need to adjust them, will give you an advantage as you work through a negotiation. If you can assess each conflict and negotiation situationally, you can intentionally utilize the style that will be most beneficial to you.

How to Win a Negotiation Without Destroying Relationships

How to Win a Negotiation Without Destroying Relationships

So far in this series, we have explored several common mistakes that can harm negotiations as well as tactics you can employ to avoid negotiation pitfalls. This post is about re-framing the way we view negotiations, especially regarding how we look at the “other side” that we are negotiating with. The idea is to achieve a satisfactory result without damaging relationships.

How to Negotiate Better by Creating New Possibilities

How to Negotiate Better by Creating New Possibilities

Negotiations can be tough.

They are often high pressure, high stakes situations with tight deadlines and demanding stakeholders. Opinions and interests can differ widely among parties, and strong emotions may come into play. When we are under this type of pressure, we often find ourselves stumped. Our thinking narrows and our creative muscles feel constrained.

The Principled Negotiation Method defined in Getting to Yes suggests several strategies to counteract this. The premise is that “The key to wise decision making lies in selecting from a great number and variety of options.”

How to Prevent Negotiation Disasters with a Plan B

How to Prevent Negotiation Disasters with a Plan B

Preparation is essential to effective negotiation. If you wish to reach a fair and satisfactory deal, you need to enter the negotiation with a clear understanding of your interests, options, comparative data, and objective criteria.

One of the most important data points to consider is your “Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement”. This serves as your “Plan B” to the negotiation. In other words, it is the best option you have and the one you will live with should you leave the negotiation without an agreement.

If you don’t know your best alternative to a negotiated agreement, you may end up taking a deal that is worse than your backup option, or you may walk away from a deal that is better than your backup option.

In this podcast, we will give you some simple steps to create your best alternative to a negotiated agreement and use an example to drive the point home. 

How to Dramatically Improve Your Negotiating with This Simple Technique

How to Dramatically Improve Your Negotiating with This Simple Technique

Negotiation is a back-and-forth communication that is designed to reach an agreement among parties that have both shared and differing interests.

We all deal with negotiating each day, whether on simple matters like what to eat for dinner to complex decisions involving high stakes business matters with multiple parties.

The purpose of negotiations is to produce wise agreements as efficiently as possible while maintaining or strengthening relationships.

In this brief podcast, we specifically look at what “Interests” are, and what it means to focus on interests (not positions) to get better results from your negotiations.