Archives for April 2012

The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors

By Alex Mandossian

One of the easiest ways to identify high-quality vendors when outsourcing is to evaluate the questions they ask you. Top vendors ask, “What is your chief complaint?”

Why does a great vendor look for your chief complaint? The French have a term, raison d’être, which is “reason for being.” Most vendors know that their reason for being is to solve problems.

If there’s no complaint, there’s no reason to serve you. If you have no problems, then a vendor has no place in your life. You won’t have anything to outsource to them.

Reliable vendors approach the challenges they uncover with what Earl Nightingale called [Read more…]

Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing

By Alex Mandossian

When choosing vendors, many people think that the most important attribute to look for is accountability. But I believe that deadline sensitivity is more important, because it protects your business and automatically guarantees a higher-quality vendor.

If someone is deadline sensitive, they’re not only reliable, but they’re also accountable.

For example, imagine that you are meeting someone for lunch, and the person is late. If he’s accountable, he’ll own up to his mistake and say, “Sorry, my bad.” If he’s late again, he says, “Oh, sorry. My fault.” When he’s late a third time, he’ll say, “You know what, I just can’t seem to meet the deadline.”

When the deadline is a lunch meeting, you may be inconvenienced and irritated. But what if the deadline is for delivering sales copy, putting up a web page, or shipping your product? The result may be [Read more…]

Outsource to the Right Team

By Alex Mandossian

When outsourcing your weaknesses, it’s obviously important to assemble the right team of vendors and/or employees. But what many entrepreneurs don’t realize is that timing is key.

As Jim Collins explained in his international best-seller, Good to Great, the executives who ignited transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. Instead, they first got the right people on the bus – and the wrong people off the bus – and then figured out where to drive it.

They said in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. but I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

So before you figure out where your company is going or who will do what, you need to first get the [Read more…]

Boost Productivity by Outsourcing Weaknesses

By Alex Mandossian

When trying to increase productivity and improve results, most people mistakenly try to improve their weaknesses. A better, easier and more reliable approach is to strengthen your strengths and outsource your weaknesses.

Trying to strengthen weaknesses only results in a lot of strong weaknesses, which is not the way to have a world-class company. It puts your focus on what you are not good at or don’t enjoy, and a universal truth is “What you focus on expands.”

It’s OK to have weaknesses; everyone does. By the time you were three years old, your brain had all of the synaptic connections it will ever have. Where you’re most densely connected, those are your strengths. Where you’re not densely connected, those are your weaknesses. You are who you are, so don’t try to fix you.

Instead, fix the role you are trying to live into. Take an inventory of [Read more…]

Archives for April 2012

The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors

Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing

Outsource to the Right Team

Boost Productivity by Outsourcing Weaknesses

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Ask Alex Live!

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Alex’s Marketing Courses

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Archived Posts

Archives for April 2012

The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors

Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing

Outsource to the Right Team

Boost Productivity by Outsourcing Weaknesses

Search this Blog

Ask Alex Live!

Subscribe To This Blog

Background

Alex’s Marketing Courses

Contact Us

Recommended Blogs

Archived Posts

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