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Don’t Kill The Deal By Pursuing “The Perfect Contract”

I am sure we have all experienced that one deal that was done on a handshake, and ultimately became the deal “from hell” that turned into a money pit. Perhaps it was as simple as a customer signing your proposal that might have the innocuous wording of “we strive to make our customers happy,” yet it turns into “scope creep” (because the customer never became happy) and you wind up spending more time, effort and resources than what you were paid (if you were paid at all). Many of us have also experienced a deal making process that included so many provisions for every possible scenario, that crafting the agreement became an obstacle to getting the deal done.

So, what do you do? Do you try to have a 30-page contract that contemplates every terrible scenario (and risk scaring off your customers with an over-reaching agreement) or do you leave out critical issues and risk that an agreement casually entered into will cost you more than it is worth? Sometimes, well thought out agreements of only a few pages can do the trick; addressing the critical needs of both parties and outlining a process for revision that works for all.

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Busting a Performance-Killing Myth: “It doesn’t matter anyway”

Despite what your parents may have told you once upon a time to make you feel better, it is not the thought (alone) that counts- or your feelings, or “intentions” or anything else, but action itself. The only thing that really counts, the thing that really makes an impact in the world, is action. Your results are a direct function of your actions, and the state of what you have and don’t have is a result of what you’ve done and not done. It is simple and inescapable logic. Action matters.

In fact, it is the only thing that matters. The refrain of “it doesn’t matter anyway”, whether pertaining to a specific action or to life in general, is just not true- and yet seems to be a chronic and costly mistake in judgment. If you hear yourself say it, whether aloud or to yourself, know that you’re fooling yourself. And that pretense has far-reaching consequences.

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Busting a Performance-Killing Myth: “I’ll Do My Best”

“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’.” -Yoda

In the world of performance, the world of action, the world of results, something either gets done or it doesn’t. When it all boils down, whether you “did your best” or not, no matter how hard you “tried”, even if you did everything you knew to do, you either did it or not.

The key here is the mindset- the approach you take in the first place, and the way you relate to your end results.

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Helping Others

In previous articles, I’ve mentioned the importance of helping others as a significant part of your networking efforts.  Many people have trouble with this and feel that the only way to help somebody is to provide them with a new client or prospect.  And, they are uncomfortable providing a referral to people they may not know that well.  

Here are some ideas to keep in mind for helping people you meet when you want to begin a new collaborative relationship.

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Don’t You Forget About Me

In previous articles, I’ve discussed the steps required to cultivate a good relationship with a center of influence (COI).  Probably one of hardest aspects of this relationship building is keeping in touch and staying on the forefront of your colleagues’ minds. It can be a daunting task to keep in touch with many centers of influence.

The key to accomplishing this is being very organized and finding opportunities for many “little touches” throughout the month that benefit your COI’s.  

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Networking 201: Filtering

One of the biggest challenges people face in “networking” is finding the right people to network with on a long term basis.   You have to figure out if the people you are meeting are going to be good networking connections or bad ones.  This is the Filtering process.  It should be embraced, rather than feared and avoided.  The following are two very typical  problems people have, and the solutions to avoiding and navigating them.

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Magic, Comfort and The Worst-Case Scenario

I do a lot of talking about “going for it”, about taking risks, doing new things, about letting go of the familiar and mediocre to create something new that you actually love to be engaged in. As you can imagine, this idea engenders a lot of resistance. We are attached to the familiar, to comfort and (a false sense of) certainty.

We say we want magic in life and in business, that we want an extraordinary experience and exceptional results- and at the same time, we spend our time and effort trying to be more comfortable, more certain. I say these things are directly at odds. Perhaps a little exercise will help loosen you up, help you take a leap and spend your time creating what you say you really want. Let’s just see what happens.

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