​While profit is obviously critical to any business, it is often simplistically depicted as the result of maximizing revenues and minimizing expenses.

However, companies often wrestle with the challenge of determining what expenses are critical to making their revenues, and which ones can be spared without affecting the top line.

One book on profitability demystifies profit creation. 

The Art of Profitability, by Adrian Slywotzky, demonstrates that profitability is achieved through the appropriate choice of business strategy, or business model, if you prefer.

Through the engaging parable of a strategy veteran coaching an aspiring strategy professional, Slywotzky covers 23 common and not-so-common “profit models.”

The Customer Solution Profit model, for example, is when a company invests significant up front time and energy to learn about a customer to develop tailored solutions just for them. These then generate ongoing profits for a long time after.

Multi-Component Profit is where the same product is sold to the same customers through different channels at different prices to maximize profitability (eg. Coke). 

The key message is that profit creation is an experimental art rather than a certain science. But it can be learned and practiced. The story also vividly illustrates effective coaching of strategic thinking, or of any other skill.

Book: 272 pages, full audio - 5 hours 36 minutes. Soundview Summary: 4 pages, 16 minute audio.


How can you improve your profitability?
​
To find out how to improve your profitability to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profitability management practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

We’re excited to let you know that registrations are now open for the Good to Great Immersion Workshop in Chicago on 8 October 2024.
 
Due to its huge success last year, Jim Collins will be back in Chicago to present a full day workshop for CEOs and team who are highly motivated to implement and understand the application of the Good to Great concepts and Jim’s full body of work on what makes great companies tick.
 
The agenda and format will be very similar, however, there is a small but significant change to the program. Jim has allocated an additional hour to Q & A so all delegates will have a chance to ask questions.

Interactive learning day with Jim in Chicago:

• Learn, understand and implement his Good to Great concepts
• Introduction to The Map, the comprehensive framework for the practical implementation of Jim’s work
• Deep dive into Turning the Flywheel and other key concepts like Built to Last, Great by Choice, Beyond Entrepreneurship and more and how they apply to your company.
• Network with other students of Jim’s work from around the globe.

​“I would highly recommend the course for every CEO and especially those that are scaling up their businesses, it is essential for them to attend.” LARRY FISHER, President Lark Group (Canada)

Special discounts for Wellspring Clients
Standard Table:  $13,950 / Wellspring Rate:  $12,950
Single Ticket: $1,495 / Wellspring Rate: $1,395
Prices quoted in USD

​Want to listen to the tip? Use the play button below.

As Dr. Brené Brown wisely notes, "We desperately need more leaders who are committed to courageous, wholehearted leadership."

Leaders who shy away from tough conversations and uncomfortable feelings often leave their teams feeling unsafe, unseen, and disrespected. This is your opportunity to change that dynamic.

Join us for a transformative 90-minute virtual masterclass:

Build Brave Leaders and Courageous Cultures

​Led by Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator Kylie Lewis, this session will equip you with the tools and insights to become a braver, more effective leader. Based on Dr. Brené Brown's groundbreaking research, you'll discover how to lead with vulnerability, live your values, build trust, and rise after setbacks.

In this masterclass, you’ll learn:

•  The three pillars of daring leadership and the barriers holding you back
•  Leading with vulnerability; the myths, the truths, and the discomfort
•  Trust-building behaviours including self-trust

​Simon Sinek has popularized the scientifically proven idea that a company’s purpose, and how much the leaders promote, act and live by that purpose, is one of many key ingredients for building a great culture and workplace. 

​Yet many midsize company owners and CEOs find it difficult to bring their company’s purpose to life and help employees connect to that purpose.

In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches webinar, Petr Ludwig, author of The End of Procrastination and founder of Procrastination.com and the GrowJob Institute, based in New York, Prague and Dubai, shares how CEOs need to be leaders of the purpose movement in their own lives to inspire others to find their purpose at work.

Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android

How can you improve your company’s return on investment?
​
​To find out how to increase your return to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profit processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

In my experience, one of the most overlooked disciplines in business is pricing. This is also reflected in the small number of books on the topic, compared to those on leadership, marketing, strategy, etc.

How often do you and your leadership team ask: Could our prices be increased? Are we discounting too much? How can we protect our pricing as competitors enter? How can we price to capture other segments of the market?

This topic is all the more relevant in the current environment of high inflation. It’s critical right now for many companies to figure out how much they can pass on supplier price increases to their customers without losing them or drastically reducing volumes.

These questions, and others, are covered in depth in Pricing With Confidence by Reed Holden and Mark Burton.

As pricing consultants to large firms, they are well versed in the internal organizational dynamics that make pricing challenging.

A key theme in their book is “build your selling backbone”. This requires thoroughly understanding the value of your product or service relative to alternatives in the market. That means analysing the added (or lesser) financial value of your offering based on the results it delivers or enables for your customers.

The authors also share insights on how to shift pricing at different stages of a product’s life.

Although clunky to read, and technical at times, this book is well worth the time investment.

Book: 202 pages, full audio - 7 hours 23 minutes.


How can you improve your pricing and profitability?
​
​To find out how to improve your profitability to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profitability management practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​In our webinar earlier this year with Greg Crabtree, speaker, entrepreneur, financial expert and author of Simple Numbers 2.0, he shared what returns entrepreneurs should expect from their business: 5% net profit is survival, 10% is a good business, and 15% is a great business. These numbers are true for about 70% of businesses.

He and his firm have since discovered a financial metric and standard that works for any company, regardless of industry, and that helps CEOs find surefire ways to improve their return on investment.

In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches podcast, Crabtree shares this better metric, the additional levers to improve your return and how, contrary to a lot of financial advice, a business owner’s best investment decision is often not to diversify into other businesses, but rather to reinvest in their current business.

​Greg also shares how his background growing up on a chicken farm to becoming an accountant has led to how strongly he feels about helping entrepreneurs create security for their families.

​Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android

How can you improve your company’s return on investment?
​
​To find out how to increase your return to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profit processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Pink is globally celebrated for his rigorous research on work, behaviour, and motivation. He says autonomy, mastery and purpose have giant implications for the future of work, employee productivity, job satisfaction and overall wellbeing.
 
Pink’s influential big-idea books (“When,” “To Sell is Human,” “Drive,” “A Whole New Mind”) have sold millions of copies globally and have won multiple awards. His latest book “The Power of Regret” was named a Best Book Of 2022 by NPR, Amazon, Apple Books, and the Financial Times. He’s been ranked in the Thinkers50 list for the 7th time, and his renowned TED talk has been watched over 40 million times.  
 
In this exclusive opportunity, ask questions LIVE and explore Dan’s wide-ranging ideas around the future of work, employee engagement, and overall life satisfaction.
 
You will learn:

• Valuable highlights of Dan Pink’s body of work
• Insights into motivation, engagement, and productivity
• Live and unscripted answers to your questions about life and work
• Fresh tools to improve your leadership

There’s a mismatch between what the science says and what business does.” – Dan Pink

​Join Dan Pink LIVE and ask him your questions directly- you won't want to miss this opportunity!
​
Tue, 20th August 2024
8:00pm - 9:00pm MB / 7:00pm - 8:00pm SK

​Fuel, food, raw materials and intermediate products are getting more expensive. It's the best time to renegotiate your own terms. If you don't, you'll miss valuable opportunities to improve your business position - and let others take the lead.

In this article, you will learn why the human brain dislikes negotiating, why compromise is always the worst choice, and why empathetic negotiators can beat even the toughest negotiators. 

I will also share five concrete negotiation tips to help you find the best solution for both parties without compromising. These tips are based on the US bestseller "Never Split The Difference" by former FBI chief negotiator, entrepreneur, and negotiation coach Chris Voss.

The human brain does not like to negotiate.

If you're like me, the thought of an upcoming negotiation doesn't necessarily make you excited. If we think about it for a moment, that seems strange. The chance of getting what we want after a negotiation should be reason enough for us to go into such a situation with joy. Yet we feel inner resistance rather than excitement; this is the case even with the best salespeople.

Brain research explains why this is so: every negotiation means hard work for our data center – and that contradicts the core goal of our brain to save energy. 

Negotiation situations are a balancing act between the joy of getting something (gain) and the pain of having to give something up (loss). Since gain and loss are processed in different regions of the brain, these regions must communicate intensively with each other during negotiations, requiring an enormous amount of working memory. 

Understandably, our brain would rather avoid such a neural feat of strength – thus forego the chance of winning a successful negotiation. 

The good news is, like any muscle, you can train the interaction between these two neural systems. So it's worth regularly putting yourself in negotiation situations and challenging your brain.

Compromises are always the worst choice. 

Negotiations are successful when both sides emerge as winners. In other words, they aim for a classic win-win scenario. And that's a good thing. However, many people confuse such a win-win scenario with making compromises. That's wrong! 

"Negotiations are not about compromises, but about finding out the other party's red line," says former BKA negotiator and current negotiation coach Thorsten Hoffmann. 

It's not a case of "I'll give you a little, and you'll give me a little." That way, everyone gets something, but neither gets enough or what they actually want. 

Losses outweigh gains

What makes things even more difficult is an exciting psychological phenomenon: loss aversion. When making compromises, everyone must give up something important to them. That is not easy because nobody likes to lose - even if they gain something else in the process. 

Think about it for a moment: You win a contract worth 50,000 dollars. Are you happy? Indeed – for a day or two. You lose a contract worth 50,000 dollars to a competitor a week later. Does that annoy you? And how – probably for the whole week. 

Our brains have double standards regarding gains and losses, and it has been proven that losses are more important than gains. This is why compromises such as "we meet in the middle" do not feel like success but leave a bitter aftertaste. 

Tactical empathy beats "tough dogs." 

Hollywood films have shaped our image of successful negotiators. They are the tough guys who stick to their position without compromise—the cunning opponents who spot the weakness of their negotiating partners and then exploit it cold-bloodedly. The atmosphere is tense; the camps harden, no one trusts the other, and no one gives in. Who stands firm? Who gives in first?

Please put yourself in such a negotiation situation: To which person would you be more likely to make concessions?

1. A tough, cunning negotiator who is adamant about his demands, who uses every statement you make against you, pushes you into a corner and forces you to abandon your demands? 
2. Or a pleasant counterpart who treats you in a friendly and polite manner throughout the entire negotiation, asks questions and listens, and obviously wants to understand your position and motives?

In his bestseller Never Split The Difference, former FBI negotiator Chris Voss writes that people are more likely to make concessions and deviate from their own negotiating position if they feel understood, respected, and valued by their counterparts. He shares nine negotiation principles that have made him successful over the years. I want to introduce you to five of them.  

Five tips on how to negotiate successfully without compromising

How can two parties reach an agreement if they don't make concessions and compromises to each other? Instead of trying to narrow your two conflicting ideas until you reach the lowest common denominator, work out a new, mutually acceptable agreement.

Tip No. 1: Break down the barriers.

Don't think in terms of fronts and avoid language that conveys "mine" versus "yours," "right" versus "wrong," "good" versus "bad." Presenting a solution as your idea versus your counterpart's, as right versus wrong, creates an antagonistic environment. Neither party can make concessions without sacrificing autonomy and integrity in such an environment. 

Instead of presenting your solution at the beginning of a negotiation, focus on building trust and gaining a more comprehensive understanding of your counterpart's point of view. Read the following four points to learn how to do this.

Tip #2: Get the other person to say, "Yes, exactly!"

You've probably experienced this before: While your counterpart is still arguing, you're already preparing your counter-argument in your head. What happens is that you stop really listening; this prevents mutual understanding from developing. 

If the person you are talking to does not feel heard and understood sufficiently, they will not be able to absorb what you have to say because their mind is still focused on themselves and their concerns. 

So listen carefully, ask questions, and paraphrase what the other person says until you really understand their core motivation. Only then can the other person say, "Yes, exactly," and be ready to listen to you from now on. 

Tip #3: Collect valuable information using the mirror technique. 

You want your counterpart to open up and give you more information about their real motives, their goal, where the no-gos are and where you can find hidden levers that can positively impact your negotiations. The mirror technique is easy and excellent for getting the other person to talk without interrogating them. It works like this:

• The person you are talking to tells you something you want to know more about.
• They take the last one to three words of the statement and reflect them back as a question.
• Your counterpart will now elaborate and specify this aspect in more detail.

What happens: This simple questioning technique allows you to dig deeper and gather helpful information without being intrusive. Your questions make the other person feel heard and valued. The fact that you use the exact words brings you closer together again and breaks down the barriers. 

Tip No. 4: "Label" your conversation partner's feelings. 

Decisions in negotiations always involve emotions. Discover your counterpart's emotions, address them, and give them a "label." For example, "It sounds to me as if…" or "That sounds to me as if…" 

With this technique, you can get your conversation partner to talk about these feelings and explain themselves further. Not only do you collect valuable information, but you also build trust and can, therefore, steer the negotiation in the right direction. 

Tip #5: Find the "black swans".  

Chris Voss calls the hidden information about our negotiating partners "black swans" that show us what they fear or desire most. They are usually beyond our assumptions, flash up as fragments of information during the talks and have the potential to turn a negotiation entirely in our favour. There are three types of such levers:

1. Positive levers give your negotiating partner something positive or take something negative away from him.
2. Negative leverage can harm your negotiating partner.
3. Normative levers are the values ​​and morals of the other person under which they act and make decisions.

When preparing for a negotiation, look for "black swans."

Consider: 

• What could be the motives of your negotiating partner?
• What might your negotiating partner most desire? What do they most fear?
• What can you give your negotiating partner that will cost you little time and effort?
• What good could you do for your negotiating partner, and what could the consequences be?
• What could lead to positive collaboration?

If you cannot find levers in your preparation, use the mirror technique and labelling described above to gather more information about your negotiating partner. If you want to understand your counterpart's motives, listen carefully, ask questions, and paraphrase, you will sooner or later discover "black swans." Use them. 

Conclusion

If you – like me – like to scroll straight to the end of an article, here are the essential findings summarized again:

1. Negotiations are neural exertions that our brains would like to avoid. 
2. You can train negotiations like any muscle.
3. Compromises are always the worst choice in negotiations because both sides feel they lose more than they gain (the principle of "loss aversion").
4. Tactical empathy beats tough guys and cunning negotiators.
5. Avoid mental and verbal fronts such as "me" versus "them," "right" and "wrong," "good" and "bad."
6. Go into the negotiation with the mindset of wanting to understand your counterpart.
7. Listen actively, ask questions and summarize until the other person feels wholly understood and can say, "Yes, exactly."
8. Collect valuable information about your negotiating partners using the mirror technique.
9. "Label" the feelings of your negotiating partners and create sympathy, trust and closeness.
10. Find the levers ("black swans") among your negotiating partners that can turn the negotiation in your favour.

https://justgrow.eu/blog/​

If you're interested in reading more of Olaf articles please visit the website link above. (Please note that Olaf's site is in German but Google translate does an excellent job of instantly translating it to English.)

How can a great business, growth & executive team coach help you grow a thriving company?
​To find out what areas a qualified executive team coach can help you improve in to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution, first published in 2004 by Stephen R. Covey, was revised and rereleased in 2012 by his son Sean Covey and colleagues Chris McChesney and Jim Huling. It covers a comprehensive system for executing change across a company.

The 4DX system is organized around four principles: 

1) Focus on a small number of wildly important goals (WIGs). The more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish. So narrow your focus and make tough choices.

2) Act on lead measures contributing to those goals. The WIGs still need to be measured. But measuring the actions to achieve the WIGs will support accountability for what’s truly actionable.

3) Keep a compelling scorecard. It must be so simple that team members can track their own score and they determine instantly if they are winning or losing.

4) Create a weekly cadence of accountability to contribute to moving the score. Unless we consistently hold each other accountable, the goal naturally fizzles in the whirlwind of the day-to-day.

4DX is a detailed and highly specified system refined by the FranklinCovey organization over the last decade and a half. 

I’m usually wary of any book that claims its system will work well every time. However, I can say that 4DX does work for executive teams (alot of the time - more on that below). 

It’s very similar to the approach from Scaling Up and the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth that we use with leadership teams to help them execute their strategies. And that works.

That said, how well these execution disciplines work depends on a number of things, such as:

• how many of the executive team members are truly A players (being highly productive in their role and consistently living the company’s values);
• if the team is aligned on the company’s purpose and philosophy, what each of their roles are and how they interconnect, and where they need to go as a company; 
• if the team has developed the trust, candor and courage to hold each other accountable;
• if the CEO supports team members’ development through one-on-ones and quarterly reviews;
• if team members hold each other accountable for applying these same practices within the teams they lead.

While 4DX is a proven execution method, the results will be limited if these other more foundational aspects of the business aren’t also worked on. 

This is the benefit of a holistic, integrated approach to business growth like Scaling Up or the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth. They go beyond symptoms to address the root causes of top team challenges, stymied company growth and CEO frustration.

Book: 352 pages, full audio - 8 hours 30 minutes, abridged audio – 3 hours 40 minutes. Summary on Soundview: 8 pages, 22 minute audio. On GetAbstract: 5 pages, 10 minute audio.


How can you improve your team’s execution?
​
To find out how to improve your execution to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 4 to check your execution practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​
​How can your team execute with less drama?
​
​To find out how to speed up execution to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 4 to check your execution processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

Get practical steps for coming up with powerful new ideas in this live Q&A with acclaimed author and expert in the science of choice, Sheena S. Iyengar.

Drawing from recent advances in neuro and cognitive sciences, Iyengar offers an innovative evidence-backed method for generating big ideas that she and her team of researchers developed and refined over the last decade.

​Get the shortcut and attend this Q&A to discover the method that will guide creative thinking and help you produce revolutionary ideas.

Become a Growth Faculty Member to hear from Sheena on Tuesday 16 July, 6pm MB 5pm SK and discover how to get the results you need sooner.

Growth companies cannot afford to wait three months to fill a key position. They need young talent, lots of it - and as quickly as possible, so that they can drive growth. These talents should have the right skills, be committed and, of course, fit into the company culture. Not an easy task.

Recruiting has changed a lot in recent years. In today's applicant market, top talent decides for themselves which company they would like to work for - not the other way around. You won't get very far with traditional recruiting methods such as job advertisements in the major job boards. The young generations Y and Z in particular need more to become aware of your company.  

Today I will show you six alternative recruiting strategies that will help you efficiently and precisely attract the talents for your company that will drive your growth company forward.

Recruiting strategy #1: Recruit mobile-first!
Millennials and Generation Z organize their entire lives via smartphone. Take advantage of this behavior and make your recruiting process mobile-friendly. This not only makes it easier for talented people to apply to you. Mobile-optimized websites and career pages are also rated better by search engines. This means that your career page will end up higher in Google search results and will receive more attention from potential applicants.

A few tips that will help you get started with mobile recruiting: 

• Learned interactions: Don't just copy your recruiting process for smartphones. Use the interaction patterns that young people know from other social media apps for your mobile recruiting.
• Seamless process: Make sure every step of your recruiting process works seamlessly on a mobile device. If you force candidates to switch from smartphone to laptop at one point, you lose valuable talent.
• Short attention span: The smaller the screen, the shorter the attention span. Therefore, structure your information in small chunks that your applicants can quickly grasp and scroll through.
• Easy contact: Make it easy for your applicants to get in touch with you. Chat bots, for example, are available around the clock and answer simple questions from your applicants quickly and independently. 
• High transparency: Make your application process transparent. Inform your applicants about the status of their application with automated SMS messages.

Recruiting strategy #2: Retain talent before they enter the job market.
Don't wait until young talent enters the job market and you have to compete with hundreds of other companies for their attention. Build trusting relationships with your future employees before they even start looking for a job. 

Student job portals such as jobvalley , connecticum or studentjob are good platforms for getting to know your employees of tomorrow early and without obligation. If you have found someone who convinces you, continue to cultivate the relationship even after the temporary job ends and make this talent an offer they can't refuse at the right time. 

Recruiting strategy #3: Use smart recruiting technologies. 
Many HR processes can be improved or automated using artificial intelligence. Self-learning algorithms like these offer great opportunities, especially in recruiting - for companies and applicants. AI applications have the potential to speed up and simplify your application process and also increase the chances of a "perfect match". 

Helpful AI applications in recruiting are:

• AI-optimized job advertisements: Intelligently optimizing job advertisements is no longer a problem today. AI-supported software analyzes the texts of your job advertisements at lightning speed. These programs give you a score that tells you how your job advertisements would perform and make concrete suggestions on how you can most effectively increase the score. Such programs include BetterAds and HeyJobs.
• CV parsing: Parsing programs help recruiters to screen and select applicants. These digital selection systems automatically read applicant data from CVs and digital profiles and compare them with the job profile. The programs work partly with artificial intelligence, partly with keywords to make a targeted pre-selection among the applicants. Providers include TextKernel with the CV parser Extract!, Softgarden , BITE and rexx systems.
• Matching: Job portals such as LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter successfully use such matching technologies. These smart algorithms suggest suitable candidates from a database, rank incoming applications and even make suggestions to recruiters about what they should ask which candidates in the job interview.  
• HR chatbots: Chatbots are used around the clock for your company. They respond independently to attempts by your applicants to contact you, can answer simple and common questions and automatically forward specific inquiries to the right employees. HR chatbots are available from Paradox , Eightfold , Humanly and Brazen , for example. 

Recruiting strategy #4: Offer video and voice applications.
Since COVID-19, companies have become more video-savvy than ever. Video is also an excellent additional opportunity in recruiting to get to know applicants personally. According to a Bitkom survey,  three out of four companies are already using digital job interviews via video call. Most companies have so far used classic video providers such as Microsoft Teams, Skype or Zoom. 

If you want to take your video and voice recruiting to the next level, you should look at video recruiting tools like Talentcube or voice-controlled chat application tools like Talk'n'Job .

Recruiting strategy #5: Activate passive applicants.
Instead of placing job advertisements and hoping for suitable talent, actively search for suitable candidates and contact them directly. 85 percent of all employed professionals worldwide would be willing to change jobs. Use this passive talent pool as a source for your recruiting.

On LinkedIn, for example, you can create a recruiter profile and use it to search for candidates who match your exact requirements - without your name appearing in the search results. This way, you can send direct messages to suitable candidates who currently have a job but might be willing to change companies. 

Tips for contacting us: 

• Write a short, personal message introducing your company and explaining why you think the person would be a perfect fit for the open position. 
• Try to keep the conversation going and offer to organize a short phone call or meeting to discuss possible collaboration.

Recruiting strategy #6: Search specifically in niche job boards.
You don't always have to use the big job boards to find suitable applicants. Niche job boards are an excellent tool for segmenting the employee market. These platforms may not be as busy as big job boards, but they are great for hiring experts in specific fields. An added bonus: they are also more affordable. 

• You can find top developers, programmers and freelancers on Stackoverflow , Honeypot or Gulp , for example . 
• You can find experts in marketing and communication specifically on t3n , HorizontJobs or w&v .
• Niche job boards in the healthcare sector are MediJobs , the job portal of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt and the job board of SpringerMedizin .

With niche job boards, you'll probably have to put in a little more effort and you'll reach fewer applicants than on the big platforms - but they'll be the right ones. 

Conclusion
You have 5, 10 or even 50 vacancies to fill – preferably today rather than tomorrow. As a growth company, you can no longer make progress with conventional recruiting methods.

• Therefore, take advantage of the smartphone affinity of your young target group and make your recruiting process mobile-friendly.
• Retain young talent during their training, before they enter the job market.
• Use intelligent recruiting technologies to make your application process quick and easy.
• Offer video and voice recruiting and use the appropriate technologies.
• Don't wait for the right talent to respond to your job advertisement. Turn the tables and speak to suitable candidates directly.
• Reach experts in specific fields in niche job boards. 

If used correctly, you will not only speed up your recruiting, you will also get more qualified candidates with less effort and thus increase your chances of a perfect match.

​https://justgrow.eu/blog/​

If you're interested in reading more of Olaf articles please visit the website link above. (Please note that Olaf's site is in German but Google translate does an excellent job of instantly translating it to English.)
​
How can you have more A-players in your company?
​
To find out how to have stronger talent and leaders to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your talent processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​Little did I know I was embarking on a tricky mental adventure when I started reading The Goal, by the late Eli Goldratt. I was glad to find out the book was written as a business fable, which made it easier to understand than a technical style.

The Goal walks us through the journey of a manager who is told he has only three months to turn his plant around, all while his marriage is on the brink, in part, due to overwork.

​The manager figures out, with his team, what the ultimate goal of his plant is, how to make that goal relevant to their people and how to optimize the plant to achieve the goal.

The story walks the reader through a mind shift from seeing a plant as a collection of parts to be individually optimized, towards seeing it as a whole system that requires careful coordination of the parts.

Based on the same underlying principles as Lean manufacturing, the approach addresses the root causes of inefficiency by identifying and resolving bottle-necks between these different parts of the plant to improve the productivity of the whole.

The manager also applies this approach to a company-wide scenario to determine the most important things to improve. This is the same way we have our clients prioritize changes and improvements in their business. 

The story also weaves in other useful best practices, such as tackling company-wide issues as a united management team and using outside expertise, lessons learned discussions, transparency and vulnerability.

Book: 408 pages; 11 hour 45 minute audio book.


How can you improve your efficiency?
To find out how to improve your systems and processes to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 7 to check your company’s systems and processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​How can you have more A-players in your company?
​
To find out how to have stronger talent and leaders to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your talent processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​When it comes to reaching new customers, most companies miss the mark by overcomplicating their messaging, making it either too generic or overly technical. And it’s a costly mistake. 

In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches podcast, David Mann, keynote speaker, trainer, professional actor/director/storyteller and founder of the Simple Message, describes how to tell the right story, communicate value and engage your ideal customer’s emotions.

Too often, businesses lose opportunities and profits by leading with their product or service, who they are or what’s unique about them.

​Focusing instead on simple messaging that speaks to solving the customer's problem, and executing that message across marketing channels that engage your ideal customers, leads to increased brand engagement, trust and loyalty. And above all it will differentiate your brand in a way that truly resonates.

​As more business owners, CEOs and presidents become aware of leadership operating systems like Scaling Up and the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth, it’s important to remember that these frameworks stand on the shoulders of one of the first frameworks developed for mid-sized companies: Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, by Verne Harnish.

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, like the methodologies that followed in its footsteps, describes a compilation of several tools developed and proven by other great thought leaders, and packaged for owners, CEOs and presidents of mid-sized companies.

Released in 2001, the book, for the first time, brought together concepts like getting the right people doing the right things, creating a one page strategic plan, setting quarterly metrics and priorities, and having an effective meeting rhythm.

Verne was inspired by the biography and executive team routines of the renowned John D. Rockefeller, who led Standard Oil for 19 years, as well as the practices of many other business leaders, like Jack Welch of GE, Tom Meredith of Dell, Tom Siebel of Siebel Systems and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.

The best practices covered in Mastering the Rockefeller Habits are now corner-stones of the more recent Scaling Up system (also spear-headed by Verne Harnish) and the more holistic 7 Attributes of Agile Growth system, summarized in books by the same names.

Yet Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is still worth the read. Beyond seeing some of these best practices from another perspective, there are a couple of tools that haven’t been carried forward into later systems: how to de-hassle your company (Chapter 7) and how to make banks compete to loan you money (Chapter 10). 

Scaling Up and the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth focus instead on finding cash from within the company (EOS doesn’t directly address cashflow and profitability). Yet, financing is still often needed. And Mastering the Rockefeller Habits provides some great advice on this.

Book: 150 pages, 4 hour audio. GetAbstract Summary: 5 pages, 10 minute audio.

How can you strengthen your team’s habits?

​To find out how to create more discipline on your executive team to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

The best strategies and market opportunities in the world mean nothing if your people don’t step up, take responsibility and act accountably.

​And yet, accountability remains a top issue for business leaders around the world. 

In this 90 minute live virtual masterclass, author, strategic advisor and business and leadership growth coach Mark Green, will guide you through implementing the behaviors, structure, rules, tools and processes required to close the costly and frustrating accountability gap. 

Many companies today first test a minimal version of their product or service (MVP) to see whether they could be successful on the market with it. This makes sense when you consider that nine out of ten innovations are doomed to failure. 

But even investing in an MVP is risky. Here too, companies first make advance payments and invest development time and budget in an idea before testing whether anyone would actually spend money on their solution. A risk that can be avoided. 

How, you ask? There's a way companies can get customers before they even have to invest time and money in an MVP. The concept I would like to introduce to you today is called pretotyping.

A step-by-step guide to pretotyping

Pretotyping Step 1: Define your offer.
Even the best sales are of no use if you have not clearly positioned your product or service. So first of all, ask yourself:

• What is the problem that our product can solve?
• Which people have this problem?
• Is the problem we're solving big enough to keep people up at night?

Take enough time for this first step and be brutally honest with your answers. If your offer doesn't solve a truly urgent problem for your customers, it will almost certainly fail. 

Pretotyping  Step 2: Create a landing page.
Your product doesn't even exist yet. But that doesn't matter. Because you know exactly what problem you can solve with it and who the people are who have this problem. Now put these insights into words and create a landing page for your future offer. 

Your landing page needs these elements:

• Title: The title should make it clear at a glance who you are and what you do.
• Header: In the header area of ​​the landing page you describe in 3 lines: What is the problem? How do you solve it? What does success look like for your customers? To do this, provide a header image that shows a happy customer. So think about what your typical customer might look like.
• Call to Action: Formulate specifically what your users should do on your landing page. Place this call to action clearly visible in several places on your landing page.
• Explain problem: In the next section, describe exactly what problems your customers are having. How does the problem affect your daily work? What does it do personally to your customers? (Frustration, anger, resignation, etc.)
• Describe the benefits: What do your customers get out of using your offer? Be specific about the benefits your customers will enjoy with your solution. Attention: It's not about describing features and services, but rather how your solution makes your customers' lives easier.  
• Show empathy: Why do you actually want to help your customers? Make your customers feel like you understand their problems and take them seriously. This creates trust – an important prerequisite for the subsequent purchase decision. 
• Prove competence: Prove with testimonials, customer logos, key figures or certificates that you can really keep what you promise.
• Plan : Describe in three steps (no more!) how customers can order your product. For service, you describe in three steps how your customers can work with you.
• Pricing and product models: Let your customers choose. Show different product and price options. Three levels have proven successful – Basic, Standard, Premium. 

If you would like to learn more about the elements of a good website, I recommend my storytelling article .

Pretotyping  Step 3: Give your visitors something of value.
Free additional offers that provide significant added value for your users are called lead magnets. You are giving something valuable to your users who are interested in your offer but are not yet ready to respond directly to your call to action. 

In return, these users give you their email addresses. You will use this in later nurturing (step 7) to further maintain them and provide them with helpful information until they are ready to buy. Case studies, white papers, checklists, templates, calculators, webinars, videos and much more are suitable as lead magnets

Pretotyping  Step 4: Find Potential Leads.
In step 1 you clearly defined your target group. Now look for real people who fall into this target group. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Xing are suitable for this, where you can search for free by industry, position and title of your target group. 

The LinkedIn tool Sales Navigator (paid) offers an even more effective way to identify leads. This allows you to define your search precisely, for example by industry, zip code, number of employees or seniority. Start broad and get narrower in your search until you end up with a list of 3,000 to 4,000 leads. 

Pretotyping  Step 5: Write to your leads.
Now get in touch with your target group. Send contact requests to your leads and write short, friendly direct messages in which you pitch your free lead magnet. 

Target the leads with whom you have the most common contacts first. Save the leads without common contacts for last. The more people accept your request, the higher the likelihood that new mutual contacts will arise with those leads with whom you initially had no connection. A clever snowball model.

Also helpful: Ask good contacts for an intro to a potential customer.

And: Follow up again in a friendly manner after seven days if leads have not responded to your request. Such direct messages often simply get lost in the inbox. 

Pretotyping  Step 6: Send your lead magnet.
I know from my own campaigns that around 30% to 50% of the people you write to will accept your contact request. Half of them will show interest in your lead magnet. Now send your lead magnet to these leads by email. You can do this manually or automatically, for example with the Brevo emailing tool .

Pretotyping  Step 7: Nurture your leads in a nurturing campaign.
Over the next few weeks, you will nurture your leads with a nurturing campaign. To do this, send them a short, valuable tip every week that will help them solve their problem. In this way, you establish yourself as an expert in your field and remain present not only in the inbox, but above all in the minds of your leads.  

Pretotyping  Step 8: Determine willingness to buy using lead scoring.
When can you finally make your offer to your leads? How do you know when a lead is ready to buy? You can determine the willingness of your leads to buy using so-called lead scoring. In a points system, you determine which interactions of your leads with you and your content are “worth” how many points. I myself work according to the following points system:

• 10 points for every opened email, every page impression and every like 
• 30 points for subscribing to the newsletter or downloading the lead magnet
• 50 points when someone shares content or looks at pricing
• 100 points extra for all leads who are decision makers in a company
• 300 points for leads who filled out the contact form and abandoned it

You can use this scoring methodology to classify your leads’ willingness to buy. If a lead has reached 1,000 points, there is a high probability that they are interested enough in your offer that you can now make them a concrete offer. It's best to automate the awarding of points in your CRM system so that you don't have to do the calculations manually after each contact. 

Pretotyping  Step 9: Make your offer.
How you want to make your offer is a matter of taste. Some people like to pick up the phone and simply call your leads. If that's too direct for you, take a close look in your CRM system at what interactions your lead had with your content, what content they spent a particularly long time looking at, and what links they clicked on. Then formulate a personal email that is tailored precisely to these interests and interactions and make your offer. The offer is your email’s call to action. 

Another way to make an offer to your leads is with a sales campaign. To do this, write five sales emails in which you tell your offer as a story in five acts - each one with a clear focus: 

Sales email 1: What is the problem and how do you solve it for your customers?

Sales Email 2: Have a testimonial tell you how you solved their problem.

Sales Email 3: Anticipate and refute the biggest objection that could stop your leads from making a purchase.

Sales email 4: Surprise your leads with a paradigm shift. Describe a common prejudice about your offer and refute it. An example: “A personal trainer is a luxury that only rich people can afford.” A paradigm shift could be: “It is not a luxury to invest in your own health. If you can’t manage to change your exercise behavior on your own, get support from an expert.”

Sales email 5: Briefly summarize the key messages from the previous emails and end with a specific call to action, e.g. arrange a non-binding consultation, try it out for free for 1 month, etc. 

Conclusion
Pretotyping is a sure-fire way to attract new customers even before you've invested time and money into developing an MVP. The nine steps summarized again:

1. Define your offer.
2. Develop a landing page for it.
3. Give your visitors something of value.
4. Search for potential leads.
5. Write to your leads.
6. Send your lead magnet via email.
7. Nurture your leads in a nurturing campaign.
8. Determine willingness to buy using lead scoring.
9. Make your offer.

The pressing question is: Is the effort worth it for you in the end? The answer to that is a clear: yes. If you invest an hour a day in pretotyping, after six months you will have your first paying customers and a four-digit email list of qualified leads. 

This lead list is your most valuable asset. Because you can scale this list and identify new leads from it. For example with lookalike audiences. If you have a size of 1,000 people or more, you can create so-called lookalike audiences on Facebook and LinkedIn from your lead list. This helps you identify new audiences that have similar characteristics to your lead list and that can be up to 15 times larger than your original list. You can now target this target group again and increase your email list tenfold. 

https://justgrow.eu/blog/​

If you're interested in reading more of Olaf articles please visit the website link above. (Please note that Olaf's site is in German but Google translate does an excellent job of instantly translating it to English.)

​How can you elevate your people to the next level?
​
To find out what you can improve in your leadership team to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist*. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.  Complete section 1 and 4 to check your leadership team* and accountability processes*. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. ​

45-MINUTE Q&A WITH THE AUTHORS OF MOVE FAST AND FIX THINGS​

Want to know how to lead change – with a clear plan for how to spend your Monday through to Friday?
In this free interview, bestselling authors, and cohosts of the TED podcast Fixable, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss will walk you through their playbook for leading change.

Over 45 minutes they’ll share their radical approach set out in their book “Move Fast and Fix Things - The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems.”

Frances Frei is a Harvard Business professor who has been central to Uber’s cultural transformation. She and Anne are two of the top leadership coaches in the world and their work with fast-moving companies Uber, Riot Games, and ServiceNow underpin their approach to leading change.

​"Move Fast & Fix Things invites us into a conversation all leaders should be having: how to create the conditions where people can truly, sustainably thrive." - Becky Schmitt, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, PepsiCo

In 2024, leaders face ongoing economic uncertainty, difficult conversations around flexible working and budget pressures, so the ability to influence and de-escalate tense situations is more critical than ever.

As a former FBI hostage negotiator and author of Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss brings a tested toolkit to navigate high-stakes negotiations.

In this 90 minute live virtual masterclass, you will learn how to:

• lead teams and drive success more effectively.
• overcome objections, and close complex deals.
• navigate workplace disputes and improve culture.
• learn advanced influence and communication strategies.
• facilitate cooperation and mitigate conflicts.

 
Buy a virtual ticket today to hear from Chris and emerge from his masterclass – Influence Outcomes, Negotiate Effectively & Connect Through Communication – with the confidence to facilitate negotiations, drive win-win outcomes, and unite your team around common goals, even when opinions differ.