Stack the Deck in Your Favor to Generate more Appointments and More New Sales In honor of the New Year approaching, I thought I’d revisit my annual New Year’s post on Facebook, in lieu of resolutions: The two most important ones at the bottom are personal items and pretty self-explanatory, so let’s get on… Read More
Leadership
The Journey
As I sit down to write my blog, I often have a pretty clear direction of where I want it to go. I know what key points I want to hit and I know how I want to leave the audience feeling. But as I begin to write, that clear direction dissipates, my mind travels… Read More
Create Achievable Goals to Win in the Long Run
As we begin to reflect on this last year and prepare for a new year, it’s a good time to also evaluate our personal and business goals. Whether we need to eat healthier, exercise more, kick up our career or consider a business that provides work flexibility, December is the ideal time to begin planning… Read More
About 25 years ago, we purchased a great 30,000 square foot office building on a beautiful eight-acre campus. Soon after, I met with the signage company to finalize the wording for our sign. At first it seemed like a no brainer that the sign should read “Proforma Headquarters,” but that wording didn’t align with the… Read More
Helping Hand
There’s an age-old saying which I’m certain everyone has heard before at least once in their life: “There is no ‘I’ in ‘Team.”’ It’s a message meant to convey the simple truth that no one person can carry a group by themselves. The purpose is to dissuade any notion of selfishness and instead promote interactive… Read More
Stop Apologizing
I am a fan of two words. I repeat them often, in the office and to strangers. “I’m sorry,” is essentially an admission of guilt. “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings,” “I’m sorry I bumped into you,” but why have I decided to always place blame on myself? I have begun to utter it constantly,… Read More
Enrich Your Business with Added Value
Bringing value to your customers should always be the focus of your business and is usually one of the top reasons why your customer returns. Value can mean different things to different people. In the dictionary three definitions of value include the following: “The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or… Read More
I started Proforma in 1978, just one year after graduating from college, in my Cleveland apartment with a $200 investment in a phone answering machine, stationery and a used file cabinet. We grew nicely in those early years. By 1984, we had grown to about $4 million in the Cleveland area. I decided it was… Read More
Robot In A Suit – The Value of Friendly Professionalism
“It’s not what you say, but how you say it” – a message I’ve addressed several times in the past in a handful of different ways. The way that a message is communicated, the very method of delivery itself, carries equal (oftentimes even greater) value than the words themselves. And, let’s be honest: while the… Read More
The Art of Saying ‘No’
“The customer is always right.” Many read into this popular phrase as an understanding to always say yes to their customers’ requests but they couldn’t be any more wrong. You do not need to do everything they say to make them happy in the end. It’s important to say no to your customers so that… Read More
Turn a Negative Review into a Positive Experience
What’s your first reaction when receiving negative feedback? It could be a bad Yelp review for your newly opened restaurant, a list of things done wrong during your annual review, or a less than satisfied employee on Glassdoor. Regardless of the medium, negative reviews and feedback are a part of a professional career for everyone…. Read More
How the Science of Influence Can Help You Be a More Effective Leader
Now that you are in a position of authority at your job or in your home, your biggest challenge is probably making decisions that everyone can be happy with. While compromise is an important part of leadership, you’ll also need to know how to employ the science of influence in order to get the job… Read More