Bill Prenatt – Strategy to Get Out Front
In his presentation, e4e partner Bill Prenatt gives the audience advice on how to stop "keeping up" and instead to get out ahead.
January 2018 Sponsor: Bill & Ann Prenatt
Bill & Ann Prenatt, Simply Successful
Simply Successful specializes in low and no cost growth solutions for entrepreneurs and family businesses. We partner with other organizations that have similar target markets but are not competitors to provide a collaborative marketing experience. Utilizing the synergy provided by our partners, you no longer have to do things alone. Our Experts 4 Entrepreneurs partners and events pages will explain our 'fusion marketing' program in greater detail and introduce you to all that our partners have to offer.
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Are You Living Your Best Story?
In this presentation called "Are You Living Your Best Story?," e4e partners Bill Prenatt & Glenda Woolley discuss the personal and professional benefits of "intentional living". The discussion is designed to help develop the motivated self-awareness and positive mindset necessary for living your best life.
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Contrarian Panel: Contentment vs Desire?
Led by e4e partner Dale Furtwengler, the "Contrarian Panel" explored this question: "What do contentment and desire have in common?" The panel and audience had a lively discussion, captured in this video...
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How Does Your Resource Network Benefit Your Business?
Marketing communications expert Caren Libby leads a panel discussion on professional networking. Caren, Brian Lunt, Bill Prenatt, Karen Hoffman and Mark Brimer discuss their approaches to networking and how they leverage their connections to advance not only their own businesses, but also to help others in their networks.
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Managing Transitions Life Throws Our Way
What do you need when your life is spinning out of control?
Sales expert and performance leader Bill Prenatt opens his presentation with the question “Have you had times when your life was spinning out of control?” He offers his own traumatic life experiences. He describes about how life can sometimes smack us in the face and what’s more important is how we react to what’s happening. Key points in this presentation include:
- How to move from reaction to responding so you manage challenges effectively
- Naming the seven elements of a negative spiral so you can take four steps to take charge of any situation and shorten the amount of time to be in a negative spiral
- Moving from denial to acceptance and improvement
- The question “What’s next?” helps you take charge
- See setbacks as temporary and move forward
- We can’t always see other options when we are in a negative spiral
- Things are almost never as bad as they seem
- The positive and negative balance in our lives
- Gratitude and forgiveness can get us through hard times
- We can either be a victim or a victor in difficult circumstances
- How to learn from our challenges and mistakes
- Adaptiveness and resiliency are key to overcoming challenges
Sales and leadership expert Bill Prenatt concludes this inspiring talk sharing about the death of his son. He invites his audience to develop tools to cope with challenges and consider your responses to them so you are more resilient in moving forward when tough times arise, which will because they are simply a part of life.
Bill Prenatt is CEO of Simply Successful and Executive Director of e4e. If you are interested in learning more about the art and science of taking control of your life, contact Bill at bill.prenatt@simplysuccessful-llc.com.
Selling Well Automatically
Most sales books are obsolete. Sales expert Bill Prenatt says, Rather than manipulate and game-play, be authentic, take interest in your prospects and seek meaningful ways to provide them value.
Bill Prenatt, opens his April 2016 presentation on effective salesmanship by sharing what he’s learned over 56 years. He admits he has learned a lot from trial and error and that he learned to master his craft largely by trial and error, fine-tuning and keeping what works and letting the rest go. In this presentation which is packed full of great information, he covers the following:
• The salesmanship principal ABMNF – Always Be Making New Friends
• Determine to take an interest in and apply yourself to needs and wants of people so you are committed to be value-able to others
• Apply G-Myth Power, the magical combination of ample technical knowledge, plus systems to support action, plus persuasive ability
• The importance of confidence and bringing the best version of yourself no matter what
• Make sure selling is always your top priority
• Understanding and tracking sales numbers that are key to your success
• The importance of using a growth sales and marketing system so you move people from cold, to warm, to hot and then to boiling fans
• The specific steps for making successful sales calls
• The importance of researching the buyer roles before you show up on a sales call so you are talking about the right things when with an economic buyer, user buyer or technical buyer
• The role of open-ended EGO questions (engage questions, interest questions, and opportunity questions) and examples of each
• The crucial commitment to focus on benefits to your clients, not features of your products or services because people buy on emotions not facts
• The steps to handle resistance effectively rather than be discouraged or shut down by it
• Experiment until you find what works and discard what does not
Bill ends his presentation emphasizing the same thing he did in the beginning: steps to success in sales include having fun, being authentic and being valuable to others, rather than trying to sell something. Then, you will find that selling is exciting, and serving clients is like helping friends.
E4e founder, Owner of Simply Successful, LLC, and long-time sales expert Bill Prenatt facilitates comprehensive programs such as this presentation because of his commitment to provide a breadth of resources to best help businesses grow, run and be healthy. Business owners and entrepreneurs hire Bill Prenatt because of his proven track record in sales and his ability to create strong results while maintaining strong relationships. For further information and to contact him, he can be reached at bill.prenatt@simplysuccessful-llc.com or 636-484-0208
Why Effective Communications?
Most of us think we are good communicators just because we do so much of it. Often we are failing miserably at it and need to understand important decisions and actions are needed to succeed.
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Stop Trying to Get Caught Up…It’s Futile
Why systematize your business? Gain insight and review examples of how standardization has positively impacted successful businesses, enabling them to outwit, outplay, and outlast challenges.
Bill Prenatt, while being a proven expert in sales strategies and implementation is a knowledgeable and passionate champion for what he calls a game-changing trend of systematizing your business. He opens his presentation asking the audience if they often feel like they are on the show Survivor. He provides examples of how standardization impacted his work with Allen Foods. He also cites the story of how McDonald’s can tear down and re-build a restaurant in 90 days because they are so systems-driven. He uses this presentation to build a strong case for standardization in business stating it is a way to outwit, outplay, and outlast any challenges that arise.
Bill Prenatt describes the predominance of fire-fighting and scarcity and how we support this with the mantra that everything is hard and tedious; in other words, we are our own worst enemy. This is a big reason we are not thriving. He focuses on how systems help us to:
- Set Direction
- Get organized
- Recognize and stop focusing on the trivial
- Consistently work on improving our businesses
Bill Prenatt asserts that waves of change so big and so bold that we aren’t able to recognize and respond to them. On top of this, we are drowning in information but starved for knowledge. We are a service economy with a product model and don’t know how to sell the invisible, the services we provide. He cites Uber is an example that change is in the air. He also cautions that only 6% of entrepreneurs are systematic.
Bill provides solutions including:
- Adopting an abundance mindset
- Shifting from fire-fighting to fire-proof
- Shifting your paradigm from urgent to important
- Adopting systems to save you stress, time, energy, and money
- Understanding systems and why standardization matters
- Using systems to move from managing many issues to a vital few
Bill Prenatt concludes by briefly describing the standardization stages and invites the audience to determine where they are on the systems cycle so the learn how to leverage them. He asserts we must identity, banish and replace our way of doing things with a systemic approach for operating.
Bill Prenatt is CEO of Simply Successful and Executive Director of e4e. If you are interested in learning more about the art and science of taking control of your life, contact Bill at bill.prenatt@simplysuccessful-llc.com. He will always have a generosity of spirit and much practical wisdom to share.
Work Team Development
Successful supervisors influence team members to do things because they “want to,” ‘like to’ and are ‘capable to.’ They help each feel useful and contributing.
In order to develop an effective work team, those in leadership must understand the role of individual private logic (also called paradigm) for how each person sees the world and their role in it. Additionally, leaders must consider how best to influence each team member so they are effective in gaining their willing participation.
Sales and management expert Bill Prenatt shares the wisdom of Steven Covey plus his own experiences and observations on recognizing, respecting and relating well to direct reports who require guidance to fully engage and contribute in your working team in a responsible, productive manner. The following are important to consider when influencing your team members so they mesh well and support the success of all.
Perceptions and Paradigms
We all experience the world in different ways. People are not motivated by facts, but by assumptions – what they believe the facts to be. Our assumptions arise from our experience, our paradigms.
Every normal person craves direction, and a sense of dignity and purpose. Our basic drive is to protect what we perceive to be in our own best interest. We do what someone asks because we will realize personal gain.
Successful supervisors influence people to do things because they want to. The interaction provides a perspective that re-defines the environment into one where people ‘like to do’ and are ‘capable of to do,’ with supervisors helping each person feel useful and contributing.
Supervisors have an opportunity and an obligation to ‘identify and influence people who need their guidance. The role of the supervisor is to clearly define critical issues, plan out how to overcome problems, resolve frustrations, and eliminate or reduce waste, leaving people free to enrich their lives and achieve their goals.
Paradigms and Patterns
Supervision has its roots in the understanding that people, as the principal asset, are the catalyst that make things move. Supervisors create and provide the conditions in which each individual member and the team collectively, can be successful. They call forth each person’s potential by demonstrating faith they can excel when managed properly. In contrast, an authority merely provides a supervisor with the right to expect certain standards of performance.
By the time a person gets to be a supervisor, he/she has spent a lifetime developing specific patterns of thinking and behaving. Each of us likes our ideas of how things should be done and changing our minds can be a problem. We develop a comfort zone. Behavior patterns are buried deep and do not change quickly. These patterns become so fixed they legitimately can be called a second nature. Then behavior plays out naturally without conscious thought because it has been reinforced over a lifetime.
Organizations and companies become fixed in this way too. They have developed a culture that works on its members silently. Then this too becomes second nature to all within its walls. All the traditions, preceding practices, norms, standards, habits, rituals, attitudes and expectations that have evolved over many years, have been woven into how everyone thinks, feels, speaks and acts.
These two factors; the supervisor’s personal patterns and the organization’s culture have a powerful effect on change.
Patterns and Persuasion
Our paradigm is the way we see the world – perceiving, understanding, and interpreting it; in a sense our paradigm is our map.
Each of us has many maps in our head. Maps of the way things are (realities) and maps of the way we should be (values). We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; and we’re usually unaware we have them. We assume the way we see things is the way they really are, and the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the source for the way we think and then act.
Conditioning has a powerful effect on our perceptions. We have a lifetime of conditioning – family, school, church, work culture, friends, associates, and current social paradigms. All have made their silent unconscious impact on us and help shape our frame of reference, our paradigms; our maps.
These paradigms are the source of our attitudes and behaviors. As clearly and objectively as we think we see things, we come to realize that others see them differently, and from their own apparently equally clear and objective point of view.
Each of us tends to think we see things as they are; that we are objective. This is not the case. We see the world not as it is, but as we are -- or, as we are conditioned to see it. When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, and our perceptions. This is the power of our paradigm. When other people disagree with us, we immediately think something is wrong with them. In reality, each of us sees things differently, each looking through the unique lens of experience.
Trying to change outward attitudes and behaviors does little good in the long run if we fail to examine the basic paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviors flow.
The more aware we are of basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experiences, the more we can take responsibility for our paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others, and be open to their perceptions too, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.
Persuasion and Paradigm Shifts
Paradigm shifts move us from one way of seeing the world to another. Whether paradigm shifts are in a positive or a negative direction, whether they are instantaneous or incremental, they create powerful change. Our paradigms, correct or incorrect, source our attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately our relationships with others. If we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms. Until we change our basic paradigms, we are unable to create quantum change in our situation or ourselves.
Many people experience a fundamental shift in thinking when they have a life-threatening crisis and suddenly see their priorities in a different light, or when they suddenly step into a new role, such as that of husband or wife, parent or grandparent, or into the new role as a supervisor. Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world. The power of a paradigm shift is the essential driver of quantum change, whether the shift is instantaneous or a slow deliberate process.
In all of life, there are sequential stages of growth and development. A child learns to turn over, to sit up, to crawl, and then to walk and run. Each step is important and each one takes time. No step can be skipped.
Paradigm Shifts and Principles
This is true in all phases of life. To understand and accept these principles can be difficult. Consequently, we sometimes look for a shortcut, expecting to be able to skip vital developmental steps in order to save time and effort while still reaping the desired result. It is simply impossible to violate, ignore, or shortcut the development process. It is contrary to nature, and attempting to seek such a shortcut only results in disappointment and frustration.
To relate effectively, we must learn to listen. This requires emotional strength. Listening involves patience, openness, and the desire to understand – highly developed qualities of character. It’s so much easier to operate from a low emotional level while giving high-level advice.
Our levels of development physically are fairly obvious, but not so concerning character and emotional/social development. We can ‘pose and put on’ socially for a stranger or an associate. We can pretend. And for a while we may get by with it – at least in public. We may even deceive ourselves. Deep down inside, most of us know the truth of who we really are and many others can discern this too.
Principles and Positive Change
In today’s complex and demanding business environment, we need to solve chronic underlying problems and focus on principles that bring long-term results. Utilizing Coaching as a valuable tool is one step closer toward being an effective supervisor.
Taken from “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey.
PARADIGM SHIFTS
How do you determine your customer’s needs?
Want to give great service? One way is to quickly identify your customer’s challenges, priorities and needs.
Our panel of experts answers the question: How do you determine your customer’s needs?
From our Experts:
Brian Lunt
I take time to have a personal conversation and get to know them. I ask authentic, caring questions until I gain the understanding of what I could do to make their life easier and better.
Bill Prenatt
Process is key. Over the years, my most effective method to discover customer needs is to ask well-placed, thoughtful questions. This is especially important since customers frequently don't know what they don't know.
I utilize a two-part system to avoid questions being randomly asked/yielding rambling answers:
1. I have a questions library, broken into Strategic, Tactical, Communications, and Competencies questions.
2. I use a concept called E G O, my questions are asked in these categories: Engaging, Genuine Interest, and Opportunities
Judy Ryan
I send out a link to one of several detailed surveys I have on my website. I do this when I have an interested prospect or when I’m asked to do a presentation at an event. People perusing my site also find these surveys. When they take them, this helps me to both educate the prospect on what I do overall and also to gather important information on them to learn about their struggles, challenges, areas they need support and many other ways I can engage in conversation when we meet and even prior to a meeting through additional questions that surface.
These are just a few of the partner responses.
Check out this article in the Academy to get all of them.
For further information, support and advice from thirty experts on this topic and many others, become a member of the e4e community by visiting our website at www.e4ecommunity.com
Nurturing Customer Relationships
Learn how and why specialized experts and business owners create habits to nurture and expand relationships with their existing customers.
Serving customers and setting an intention to create a satisfying experience with them engenders ongoing loyalty and often-extraordinary results. Being grateful and mindful about your customers and attentive to their needs, translates into strong relationships that are mutually positive and supportive. Some likely results: your customers develop business for you. They like you, they trust you, they continue to buy from you and they refer others to you. Most important of all, developing caring habits that keep them happy ultimately make you happy too. Benefit from the experience of our experts who offer you a range of ideas to try out for your benefit and those you serve.
From our Experts:
John Eyres
I like to EMAIL out new and interesting trends I feel would benefit some of my current and past clients. This is a very positive way to help them and help me keep in touch with them. I think they really appreciate the way I send them specific information tidbits they can use in their business.
Cathy Sexton
I send an email every week with a productivity tip of the week that brings value and is quick and easy to read. I get a lot of positive feedback.
Glenda Woolley
I like to give more than my customers are expecting. When opportunities arise to support them in unconventional ways they don’t anticipate, more than a working relationship develops. We also become friends.
Bill Prenatt
Many years ago I had a colleague who said, "Do the best you can and do a little bit more.”
My goal in working with my clients is to make them feel special...like they are my only client in the world. I also want them to trust me deeply.
Doing what I say I'm going to do, when I say I'm going to do it, is important to me. They don't care what I know unless they know that I care.
These are just a few of the partner responses.
Check out this article in the Academy to get all of them.
For further information, support and advice from thirty experts on this topic and many others, become a member of the e4e community by visiting our website at www.e4ecommunity.com
Video: Without Systems, Results Fall Short
Getting motivated is not enough. Behavior change is essential, including specific actionable changes in your business and human systems. Life and business are changing quickly and in ways that create gaps and challenges to overcome. In this presentation, sales and productivity expert Bill Prenatt describes how systems enable you to cultivate conditions needed to respond effectively to what’s most important to your business so you are proactive vs. reactive.
Bill Prenatt, visionary, master collaborator and sales expert focuses on helping participants in:
- Learning how systems close the gap between intent and behaviors
- Utilizing systems to anticipate and solve problems
- Connecting-the-dots between results and performance improvement through systems
- Commitment to change by going deeper into issues using a systems approach
- Managing the inner conflicts of the business owner using systems to change behaviors, habits, routines
- Balancing consideration for results and for relationships in healthy measure
E4e founder, Owner of Simply Successful, and sales expert Bill Prenatt facilitates comprehensive programs such as this presentation because of his commitment to provide a breadth of resources to best help businesses grow, run and be healthy. Business owners and entrepreneurs hire Bill Prenatt because of his proven track record in sales and his ability to create strong results while maintaining strong relationships. For further information and to contact him, he can be reached at bill.prenatt@simplysuccessful-llc.com or 636-484-0208
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Secrets of a Sales Professional
During my sales career I have been able to obtain millions of dollars of new business and never use a sales pitch. Instead of talking and telling to prospects, I’ve used an interview process much like you might use to hire someone.
What’s my secret? It lines up perfectly with the July 4, 2013 Harvard Business Review article, “If You Want to Influence Others, Listen to Them.”
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Seven Incredibly Predictable Steps to Making Money
Have you wondered why your business has big peaks and valleys? What if you had a tool to achieve sustainable results over long periods of time? Get your key people together and implement this systematic approach to achieving your company’s objectives over the long haul. Follow these seven steps and watch performance begin to improve beyond your wildest expectations!
Step # 1
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The Best Kept Secret to Transition a Family Business
Family-owned and family-managed businesses account for 90% of all business enterprises in North America, more than 60% of America’s employment, 78% of all new job creation, and 50% of America’s Gross Domestic Product.
Paradoxically, only 30% of family businesses in America are successful passing the reigns to the next generation.
70% of family businesses do not make it to the second generation even though surveys indicate 79% of senior members want their families to retain the family business and 70% of the next generation shares these hopes.
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Rolling the Dice on Your Future
As business owners we inadvertently take unnecessary risks with our business, which lead to unintended consequences. We get so caught up in the day-to-day minutia that we confuse the importance of being busy with activities rather than focusing on producing tangible results.
Focusing on random activities drains your energy, time, and money. Activities not thoroughly thought through can act like a vampire sucking the lifeblood out of you, your business and your family. Read more to learn how to be consciously proactive in your work.
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Everything is Easier When You Think
Whether you seek success or significance you still have to do something!
Here are six critical areas to consider when you apply your ‘do something’ mentality.
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To Fly Alone or with a Co-Pilot
What’s a mentor, should I have one, what would I do with one if I had one, and how would I get started?
There is no substitute for perseverance, hard work, and determination to achieving one’s dreams. On our journey, it is difficult if not impossible to see our world through a clear lens as to how we see ourselves, how we are perceived, how others see our contribution, and what opportunities and challenges lie ahead. Having a wise and committed mentor can keep us grounded in the reality of our situation. When we truly engage with a mentor, he or she may be able to help us anticipate the future rather than react to the present or past.
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Feel You Always Have Too Much To Do?
Are you tired of sleepless nights, unproductive feelings of stress and anxiety, relationships constantly under duress, and not being yourself at the top of your game?
One of my earlier BLOGS pointed to the Tyranny of the Urgent and the importance of setting priorities in order to be happy, productive, and successful.
Why is it we have time to do things over, but not time to do them right the first time?
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Are you always on the verge of getting ‘caught up’?
Do you ever get the feeling your life is out of control?
The internet has been a game changer in our lives, but is your life better off as a result of the internet? The answer to that question is probably “it all depends.” Being overwhelmed day in and day out can be stressful. We’re literally being bombarded with activities that drain our energy. It’s important to admit we are sabotaging our lives and can make the choice to live healthier and longer lives with less stress.
Did you ever try to catch butterflies when you were a kid? Catching butterflies is not an easy thing to do. At a minimum it’s difficult to catch butterflies without a net. Getting caught up is like catching butterflies. We are often unsuccessful, because we flitter from one task to another. No matter how hard we try, we become overwhelmed with activities and tasks.
NEWS FLASH …..Stop trying to CATCH UP! It’s futile. Now, don’t you feel better? You have actually accomplished something.
You might be asking, “Why is a sales expert writing about time?” What makes me a time management expert? In the selling game ‘time is money.’ Over the years, I have constantly honed my time management skills because there are a jillion time wasters in selling. It’s like skeet shooting. There are always clay pigeons disguised as real priorities everywhere you turn. In selling you can literally waste hours, and even days of time if you don’t develop good time management habits.
It might be easier to wheel you into your local hospital for surgery on your brain but you could settle for a simple paradigm shift to make profound change in your life. Change requires effort and forming new habits on your part, but in the end it’s safer and less costly than brain surgery.
The real culprit in our lives is the…Tyranny of the Urgent*
To illustrate my point, in my last job before starting my own business, I asked one of our people (an up and coming super star). “How do you decide what to work on every day?” His comment was simply, “I work on what comes across my desk.” This thinking is easy but produces mediocre or poor results.
Our lives will always be too full. You may believe there’s a lot more to do than you have time and energy to accomplish. It’s like someone put you on a tread mill and then turned the speed up as fast as the treadmill will go. To be successful you have to discipline yourself to practice making good choices. Decide what’s important, what really makes you happy. When you focus on your relationships with your friends, family, children and colleagues, you bring great joy into your life. Being healthy spiritually, physically, and mentally forms the foundation for all you do. Having worthwhile work is motivating and rewarding. It’s that simple. You then enjoy a place you can call home and transportation to get you around. Everything else is just small stuff.
You will never be satisfied with “stuff”. “Stuff” gives short-term satisfaction but is a fleeting form of gratification…
How you prioritize, what you decide to do every morning when you get up, isn’t going to get any easier. Make the decision right now you are going to take action to make better choices about what’s important in your life before it’s too late. If you don’t value your time, don’t expect others to value it either. Give you and your family the greatest gift of all.
Live a quality life built around things that matter most.
If you’re interested in learning more about the art and science of taking control of your life, sign up for our free membership trial or become an e4e member. Once you sign up, go to my 7 Steps to Sanity in a World Gone Mad in the Articles section of the e4e community.
