Monday, August 30, 2004

Coaching Tips-Database

Trying to build a database and need to get more email addresses?

Here are some tips you can use… this is how I built my data base to over 100, 000. If you want more tips like this go to http://www.comprehensivecoachingu.com and subscribe to my newsletter, The 5 Minute Coach, filled with tips you can use.

1. Put a survey on your site and give people a thank you gift for completing the survey. They need to include their email address so you can send them a free download.
2. Hold a contest and they must give you’re their email address to enter.
3. Give away a free report or e-book – again they give you their email address.
4. Give them access to your member’s only resource center of your site if they give you their email address.
5. Give free email consulting or coaching where they can ask you a question. You will respond so you need an email address.
6. Do an ask campaign or poll – get their email addresses and also promise to send them results.
7. Invite them to subscribe to your ezine.
8. Offer a service, like “Ask the Coach”, on your site. They have to give their email address to get a response.
9. Ask them to sign your guestbook and give them a free gift for doing so… like a coupon for a free visit to a health club, or certificate for a cup of coffee, etc.
10. Allow them to post something on a forum on your site, as long as they give their email address.
11. Allow them to send you a classified ad for your ezine, as long as they provide email address.

For more tips, whether you are a current coach or thinking about becoming coach, be sure to visit my newly launched site http://www.comprehensivecoachingu.com

Saturday, August 28, 2004

New ComprehensiveU Site

For those of you who missed the deadline for the special "blog readers offer" please do visit Comprehenisve Coaching U for books, videos, kits and articles, from Terri Levine, such as provided here:

You Could Be A Coach If?

Ever find yourself overcome with a mysterious urge to pick people up, dust them off, and set them off on the yellow brick road to success even if you've never met them? Ever had to bite your tongue because some part of you desperately wanted to help someone, but decorum and a sense of "what will this perfect stranger think of me if I said that!?" holds you back? Ever fight this same, powerful urge when you come across somebody who is dithering, because he doesn't really know what he wants to do, and if he does, he's not doing anything about it?

Ever wonder why your view of the world is colored by a warm and cheerful, rosy hue, yet people around you are describing a dull, gray color? A Pollyanna you may not be, and you don't have to see the world through rose-colored glasses, but if you see the world as a place of opportunity, a positive place, and you notice what is good and right you are different to people who see shadows where you see cloud shapes, or if they do see cloud shapes, they're looking at something like the grim reaper, and you're seeing butterflies. Yes, some of us do believe life can be easy, uncomplicated and fun. We believe it, because we live it! If you live it too, or want to live it and want others to live it, there could be more at play here than just your good nature!

Do you really enjoy the company of people? Do you see them as unique individuals, yet part of a connected whole? Do you accept them without judgment? When everyone else talks about how rude and lazy Joe Bloggs is, do you see the wonderful potential he has and talk about how clever he is at making the most of his relaxation moments while the rest of the world grows stress ulcers? Wow! Have you got the symptoms!

What about how other people see you? Do you ever ask yourself, "What am I? Some kind of Dear Abby?" Do people, be they friends, family, or co-workers, come to you with their stories and ask for your advice, or just to cry on your shoulder and hope for your words of wisdom? Are you the keeper of their deep, dark secrets? Do people naturally confide in you? Do you enjoy that? Yes, maybe you do have a trusting face but perhaps, it's something more Do you enjoy chatting with people about their problems? Of course, maybe you are just nosy, but let's not discount the very real possibility that you are sincerely interested in other people and they sense that.

Perhaps you find talking to strangers an easy and fun thing to do. Maybe you have that golden knack of making people feel at ease a pre-requisite for spilling the beans to you in the first place, wouldn't you say? And if showing care and consideration to somebody who is upset is second nature to you, of course, this might be the "nursing instinct" in you that never had the chance to bloom because your education veered off in the other direction, and again, it might not.

Perhaps you have a background in teaching or training? Perhaps you admire public speakers who motivate others to greatness! It certainly fits into the jigsaw puzzle, doesn't it? Speaking of puzzles maybe you are one of those who can read between the lines of what is being said to you you can really listen and hear more than just words. Yes, sounds like you have a great set of ears, but then again, great ears aren't everything although they do look terrific with great earrings - but you are using more than ears to listen to these people.

Are you innovative and entrepreneurial, and do you enjoy sharing your knowledge with others and helping them? Do you enjoy finding new ways of doing things? Are you creative? Perhaps you are interested in doing something that will benefit society these are all "signs", you know! There is a name for all these feelings there is an answer why you may often feel frustrated because you can't express the real you!

If most of these things remind you of yourself, I'm surprised you aren't a Coach already! What good is all your great advice, expert knowledge and know-how if you can't apply it to yourself? If your advice is good enough for other people, why don't you take it? You want to help people, you enjoy helping people I bet you'd love to be paid for it so what's stopping you?

If you are a great people person, who gets along well with all types of people from all walks of life, then you have a great gift, and those with such gifts who are benefiting individuals and businesses worldwide are known as personal and business coaches. Don't you feel better now, knowing that there is a word for your condition?

If you are interested to work on your own personal development, willing to walk your talk and be an exceptional role model to others, you have what it takes to be an exceptional Coach.

Add to these talents a desire to be your own Boss, work your own hours, choose your own clients, your own niche, etc., and what we have here is a professional Coach.

So, now you know what your condition is, perhaps you are wondering how to deal with it, or even when to deal with it! Or maybe you've just been laid off work, or maybe you are ready for a change of career. Maybe you just want to work from home for personal reasons. Or it could be that the idea of helping people the way you have been, from the comfort of your own home, being your own boss, AND getting paid for it is just incredibly attractive! (It is possible to help people who don't find that attractive these are the same people who can't see your butterflies of course, they'd have to hire a coach first!)

Well, why not consider becoming a certified Coach? It's a way of being that allows you to work your own hours, while you help people attain their goals. It's challenging, fun, profitable, and rewarding. And best of all it removes that empty feeling you sometimes feel because you have these incredible gifts and the strong desire to use them to help the world and you just don't know how!

If you'd like more information on how to treat your 'condition',please visit me at my web site http://www.ComprehensiveCoachingU.com.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Website Launch

Announcing the launch of the new Comprehensive Coaching U website.

Discover the most complete resource web site for existing coaches or those interested in becoming a coach. Visit our site before 12:00AM, August 28th, and fill in one of the forms, or our contact email at the bottom of each page, stating you read this in this blog and you’ll receive a free gift -"Coaching For An Extraordinary Life" by Terri Levine, CEO of Comprehensive Coaching U.

Added bonus- mention how you found Terri Levine's blog and we will send you another special gift, her wonderful ebook called "Work Yourself Happy". This special offer ends at 12:00am EST August 28th.

Besides the free bonuses, existing coaches will learn how to:

Get a continuous stream of paying clients from our national database, which is currently in development. Tap into our success library, which is currently in development, of winning direct mail pieces, killer scripts, and closing techniques.

Access a client business growth system, which is currently in development, that guarantees you $595-$1095 per month per client. (All on minimum 12 month contracts).

Those interested in starting a full time or part time coaching business will learn how to:
Start part-time with total confidence (whether you want to earn $100-$500 per hour or just make an impact on peoples business or lives).

Learn about our step-by-step system for getting clients without selling; how to successfully coach a client; what fees to charge; and how to keep clients long-term.

Act now, and click here to take advantage of this special offer that ends at 12:00am EST August 28th.



(This offer is only available to those reading this blog)

Friday, August 20, 2004

Career Coaching

It is estimated that there are over 15,000 coaches in the United States alone and the entire coaching field continues to soar. Career Coaching is the fastest growing segment of the coaching industry, according to my research.

The three major categories of coaches are career coaches, executive coaches (hired by companies to work with employees), and then there are life coaches, who are gaining in popularity during the past 5 years.

Before you hire a coach, figure out which type of coach you want to work with. Do you want assistance with your job or a job search or starting a new business? Then a career coach is right for you. If you want assistance as an executive or manager, an executive coach is right. If you desire personal assistance, life coaching is the answer.

Because coaching is based on personality, it is important to hire a coach whose personality you resonate with. More about coaches and coaching at http://www.coachinstitute.com/
When I coach new business owners, I find so often, they haven’t clarified their objective for their business.

Begin to create a vision, a picture of where you want to be in the next year. I mean see and feel it all. What are you wearing? Where are you living? What are you feeling? What do you see, smell, taste, and touch? The more detail you can put behind this, the more the brain buys it. Our brains can’t distinguish reality from fantasy, so when we give them vivid, Technicolor pictures, they work on making it happen!

Use this tool to create more of what you want in your business (and your life)! Articles and free resources at http://www.terrilevine.com

I recently read that the average life expectancy in the United States is 77.5 years. I took my age, 47 and realized I only had 30.5 expected years on earth. (I also remembered how fast I got to be age 30 and how it flew by). I know it is said we spend about 20% of our time doing things like eating, grooming, sleeping, waiting in line, waiting on hold, etc. So, of the 30.5 years, 20% is going to be spent in less meaningful ways.

This makes me glad that I do the work I love each day, spend time with the people I love each day, eat the foods I love each day, see, touch, taste and feel all the joy I do each day.

The clock is ticking. If I am given the gift of another 30.5 years (and beyond, perhaps!), I want to experience each to the fullest. The reason I preach my Work Yourself Happy message, is too many people leave this planet suddenly or a later age, having missed out on living their life. Instead they were creating income, working at a job that took them away from life and friends and family.Do you want to love your life and work and live each moment doing what you love and loving what you do? Ever thought about working 4 days or 3 or less each week? Want to spend more time with your children, partner, hobbies, church, and community? Well, you can. I do. And, I also make an EXTRAordinary living and live an EXTRAordinary life.

If you want my tips and secrets they are available to you in my books, Work Yourself Happy and Coaching for an Extraordinary Life.

How do YOU intend to experience the rest of your life?

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is growing by about 40% a year according to The Economist, December 2002.. “Executive coaching is a proven growth industry. At least 100,000 coaches work for businesses today, up from 2,000 in 1996. And that figure is expected to exceed 50,000 in the next five years. Executive coaching is also highly profitable; employers are now willing to pay fees ranging from $1500 to $15,000 a day” –The Economics of Coaching. Harvard Business School Journal, July 2002.

Due to the high demand, professionals who want to be trained as business coaches, and who want an accelerated learning program while achieving deep learning, can do so with a personal mentor. This allows them to fast track and get a flexible training system of high quality, to enter this booming field. Available at: http://www.coachinstitute.com/

Friday, August 13, 2004

Startling Facts

Startling Facts About The Coffee Industry

Do you know that Starbucks buys over 100 million pounds of coffee each year?

Do you know coffee is the second largest commodity in the world?

Do you know coffee is the second largest export and that over 25 million people are employed in the industry?

Do you know that coffee is second only to oil in world trade, in dollar value?

With coffee as the most popular drink worldwide with 1.4 billion cups consumed each day, the coffee industry is the business to be in.

Yet, as a health/wellness coach, I never would advocate that folks go drink a pot of coffee!

I recently tried Gano CafĂ© which has ganoderma, called “The Miraculous King of Herbs” and now have a product I love and want to share with others. If you want to try it, I will send you a free sample of this new healthy coffee I came across if you would try it and give your honest opinion about it. If you, send me your snail mail address and full name, and I’ll put it right in the mail. Terri@ComprehensiveCoachingU.Com

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Motivating Your Sales Team

If you’re in business, no doubt you’ll be up to date with the modern view on employee motivation – what works and what doesn’t. And if you aren’t, let me fill you in.

The old, traditional methods of motivating employees with award programs, bonuses, financial incentives, company cars, free dinners, etc. etc. have been proven not to work in the long term. In a nutshell, the only real motivation that works costs nothing and comes from the employees themselves. Simply, these are self-pride, self-confidence, and the self-satisfaction of knowing they are doing and being the best they can do/be and their company is proud of and acknowledges their achievements. This sense of knowing that what they do is important and worth doing and appreciated cannot be “bought”. It is priceless.

You can spot this type of person a mile away. He or she is the one who strides confidently through the corridors, proud of their company and open about it, take their work more seriously than others, are committed to their career and see their company and themselves almost as “one”. Chances are they are also the best at what they do, or are aiming for that position. Perhaps these are the same people who look for training opportunities themselves. What makes them different? They have goals. They have dreams to fulfill. They’re “driven”. They’re “motivated”. That’s the difference.

Imagine, for a moment, if everyone on your sales team had this drive… this motivation. It is possible. Just think of your favorite sports team!

So what can you do to develop that same motivation in YOUR team?

For a start, you can stop emphasizing success/failure in personal terms. Doing this sets people up to feel like failures, when it could be a simple matter of more training needed. You need to build people up, not put them down. You need to encourage them all to be the best they can be and encourage them with positive feedback, even with the smallest of accomplishments. Every accomplishment, no matter how small or trivial, is a step forward in the right direction – and you want more of that. You need to instill self-pride in each team player, and pride in their company and product or service. You need to build their confidence that they can do it and already, they are on their way to doing it. They will come to believe that, if you believe that.

This doesn’t mean you “hand feed” them by doing things for them they could and should be doing themselves, such as creating leads, closing sales, etc. You may assist them, but let them “accomplish” it themselves. Allow your team to learn and be there for them with helpful suggestions and ideas, but don’t do the work for them. You want your team to develop their skills and abilities and take pride in their own accomplishments.

You can do this by ensuring your team understands what is required of them and where that fits in with the organization’s mission and values. Let it be understood that the organization only hires “the best” – that alone will make every individual member of your team “think” about their performance. If they are already considered “one of the best”, they will want to retain that title. If your company really does hire just any old body to work in Sales, this does not say much for the sales team and the effect this has on the esteem of others in the team is not likely to be very positive.

Give them pride in their company by promoting the organization’s Mission Statement and educating them on how that applies to them and their role in the company. Ensure they “buy in” to the company’s mission and values. (If you don’t know how to do that, call me on 215-699-4949. One of my services includes teaching techniques on how to achieve this, and more, through my organizational programs.)

Rather than talk about what’s going wrong, talk about what is working/going right and ask for ideas on how to get more things to work/go right. When you shift your staff’s focus to what is working/going right, their brains tend to think along those lines rather than concentrate on what is not working. You can affect the mindset of your entire department just by this simple trick of focusing on what is already working.

It’s obvious that an ill-trained sales person who accomplishes little is not going to have a high self-esteem. Their mindset is already focused on what is not working and what is wrong with them and their ability to succeed. They may blame themselves, the product/service they have to promote, and the company for lack of support. With correct training, these employees can be turned around to become positive, self-confident, and productive members of your sales division.

One of the most important things any company can do to improve motivation is perform regular training sessions – not just weekly meetings, but real training/practice sessions where the difficult issues can be addressed and the basics covered. You need to work with an up-to-date, effective curriculum devised by a sales training professional. When your team is confident in their skills and ability, this will have an immediate effect on their self esteem and levels of motivation. It’s hard to be enthusiastic and confident when you don’t know what you are doing!

I have developed individual sales training programs for many organizations and have also put out specialized sales training kits for use as home study and that can also be utilized for in-house training. If you would like to find out more about how I can help your organization, please call me on 215-699-4949 or email me at Terri@terrilevine.com. Alternatively, if you like the idea of the sales training kits, you can read more about these on the website at http://www.selling-without-selling.com/.

We also have highly qualified and certified Sales Coaches who can work with teams or individuals in your organization either in person or via telephone sessions on a regular basis. This form of coaching has had remarkable results and reinforces any training given. I, personally, have also been hired to teach supervisors and managers how to “coach” their employees, and this can be very cost effective and provide long term benefits.

This isn’t just about boosting morale, although that is often part of it. This is about putting programs into place that train your sales staff in effective selling techniques that match today’s market, using proven methods that work because they’ve been tried and tested. This is not about rehashing old materials or somebody else’s materials. I have many years in Sales and know exactly what is going on and what is needed to succeedin the sales profession. Improving the bottom line is my area of expertise.

In a nutshell, developing a confident and motivated sales team is not something that need cost a fortune and take years to be effective. The techniques used are simple and easy to apply. Mostly, it involves change, positive change in the way each member and manager communicates, thinks and feels together with programs and strategies to use to improve their individual selling performance and abilities.