FALL IN LOVE AND GET ENGAGED...

IT’S BUSINESS AND IT’S PERSONAL
Last week you may have read my article “Is customer service on the wane?" One of the main concerns mentioned was the ability of the frontline staff to engage with the customer. Once this process is truly understood and integrated it really makes sense in the bigger picture and everything becomes a lot more fun. As a business and personal coach....with over 25 years hands on experience in sales... I hope you enjoy the sharing as it supports the learning of this under promoted process of customer engagement.
I am sure most everyone has heard the famous words ...”ITS JUST BUSINESS, ITS NOT PERSONAL” at least once in their lifetime while conducting business. These words sometimes have a tendency to be used as a means of escaping responsibilities and accountability. If you are doing business ethically, morally and with kindness and caring...these words would probably never need to be uttered, a whole other article could be written on that topic alone. Can you be practical, kind, ethical, caring, compassionate and still do well in buisness and not be considered just a total idealist? O.K. back to the customer engagement process, this is where all your senses must be activated and when it comes to BUSINESS... IT COULDN’T GET MORE PERSONAL!
The key in engaging your guest is to be actively involved in the process...to go from passive to active is to be fully alive or living fully.
Whether it is in the process of selling or the picture you paint or the meal you serve, you must find the artist within. This type of activity comes from a special kind of attitude that allows time to slow down and a space for your true self to bring wonder and create the joy within to share your light to the world.
In cultivating this kind of attitude in your life it is a process of being very present in the wonder of what one might learn today...who will you meet and who may have a story that can enhance your life or change your view on the world, and in exchange how may you create that special experience to make a difference in someone else’s life.
Engagement...is a place to cultivate this time and space ...a process to building relationships and getting to know each other through listening with true interest. When you laugh with your guest ... and share something exciting with them, listen, study and soon you will find a connection, similarities in your day, your environment, and even in your lives. You will both feel a sense of openness, a place where each can share ...if you begin with a true interest in your customer, then customers will be very receptive of your genuine engagement. They will know and feel this natural state... a place of honesty and of service, if it is not genuine your customer will sense this too. A loyal and long term relationship, business or personal ... is always being in a place of how and who may I be of service to today so that we both can be the best we can be, creating amazing experiences.
The following are 5 important steps to remember in the process of engagement in retail sales...
# 1...Customer awareness and gaining favourable attention
#2...Being thoughtful through listening and study
#3 ...Appreciative inquiry....seeking the positive
#4...Customer satisfaction with their decision
#5...Cultivating mindfulness.... genuinely caring and being of service

"The guests that you have engaged with will not only visit more often to buy from you, they will generate a larger purchase price, and a higher customer satisfaction will be the winning result and the true gift.
Customer engagement is a form of self-discipline and will help you and those around you become better human beings.
Be patient ....listen for the truth ... and speak your truth...slow it down and the gifts of time and space will come your way, FALL IN LOVE, give, receive and appreciate the enjoyment of GETTING ENGAGED with your customer.

Caterina Alberti,
It’s Business and It’s Personal Sales and Service Coaching @ Crossover Coaching Inc.
crossovercoaching@gmail.com, P.604-905-8200

TRANSPARENCY IS THE NEW PATH...

Leadership Transparency....where is it?

Have you found yourself in a place where your leaders are so far from transparent and authentic it is really hard to recognize them at all, or very easy? The good part is that you have found yourself...However...you will be asking yourself how does one evolve or grow around leaders who are not transparent and authentic? You soon come to realize evolving at your workplace must happen in silence...as the spoken or unspoken words and the transparent or hidden agendas play havoc to people and their organizations...
Leaders who are not transparent in their organizations are most certainly very difficult to change, someone recently said to me..."leopards never change their spots". It is so hard to witness and be under the wing of leaders who are not willing to lead authentically...one takes the risk of losing their way...or become too frightened to say anything and become immobile or even worse take an uncaring position. If one can not feel free to speak their truth and express themselves honestly with their leaders how can we be true to our own hearts...If we allow ourselves to fall into this trap... well we are no better ... "Apathy in our society allows for exploitation on just about every front!"

When you were a child transparency is natural...it just flows and you express and allow yourself to be playful. You are so inspired or in spirit...there is no pressure to know the whys or what's ... Your heart knows, your heart tells all...this is transparency.

Leaders today must be more than someone who inspires, motivates and provides direction and vision....a quality to do the right thing must be at the core... so that honesty and openness are expressed and communicated regardless of the outcome.

When leaders assume a mentor/coaching role they automatically step out of the hierarchy and control style. Transparency begins and will create a more ethical and value-based workplace, where people will feel good about being involved. It will be wonderful to watch a new generation of leaders make possible an environment where talented and creative people have lots of opportunity and will be assured of fair treatment. Aligning yourself with your true companions to do work that is naturally harmonious will truly allow for great things to happen.
LEAD THE WAY...follow your true path...

WHAT BUSINESS DOES THE HEART HAVE?

I Love doing business with those people in places where you just know their actions and way of being are with a connection to the heart. These people in business have developed the right attitude and they are focused on doing the right things in the best way possible.

What happens when a business does not take responsibilities of the heart?
First, you will realize you have just lost your options one by one and in the process you most certainly take options away from others.
The heart is replaced with attitudes of profit for the sake of profit, kindness and understanding disappears into having to be right. A love of power replaces all gut feelings and then your intuition gets lost and in exchange it becomes a mind game only, business and even relationships can soon dissolve into a competitive game of winning at any cost.

What business does the heart have in business?  Now I ask... Can we bring the heart back into the business world today and develop cultures that learn how to lead and develop authentic relationships and collaboration inside and out so that we may step into our full potential. A great opportunity is available for leaders to mentor the important principles that must be used to guide the next generations with important ethics and spirit at heart when conducting business.

Who are those leaders in the workplaces that will bring the much needed sensitivity and fluidity that is missing in the business world today. With our busy material worlds, we loose ourselves to fear and the misuse of power and control finds its way into the circle.

Stepping out of the box and looking around you to see how your spirit and the spirit of others are thriving in the workplace!  The key for the future is to ask how ourselves how are we empowering and including others in our community?

I would love to see people bring back the lightness and playfulness of the heart in business, this is what will create the needed openness, fun and honesty in everything we do so that we may attract people to our products and services. This is the challenge for leaders today, providing the flow, fun and spirit....connecting the heart in business.

When your heart is engaged in people, people instinctively want to be around you, they feel and sense your sincerity.  When you are engaged within your heart, guiding, sharing and service comes naturally, people will be drawn to you and your business like bumble bees to honey.

How do you align your heart, business and higher purpose? Start by slowing it down, listening to hear the answers you seek and trust your intuition.
 If you feel you need to do provide a service for someone do it!!! Business needs heart!

COACHING-METAPHORS...

WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR GARDEN?

As I was saying," gardening is similar to coaching...metaphorically of course, so what are the similarities you ask?" I suppose one needs to know a little more what coaching is all about... most of us know a little about gardening and growing a few vegetables, herbs or maybe some lovely flowers in our backyard.

Well, hello everyone my name is Caterina and I am an executive business coach, founder and president of Crossover Coaching Inc. we work together with our clients to support both their business and personal needs. Sometimes it's just about business although more times than not there is a crossover between our personal and professional lifes.

Crossover Coaching is a "whole person growth activity" and we can provide many positive outcomes for business change and results. OK...so here we go... let's choose something from our gardens that we are growing this summer, I am experimenting with some Pemberton organic potatoes for the first time, so far... so good. NOW...gardening as we know it... follows some similar traits as coaching, so to grow those potatoes and achieve results we must also have a "whole potatoe growth activity."

In coaching as in gardening there are some key principles which lead to effective results...

We know that one potatoe has the resources within itself to grow into a basket full of 5 to 10 or more potatoes...only the potatoe knows what to do because it possess all of its own essential information. A Crossover Coach knows the client also has all the resources within themselves to resolve their particular issue, only they know what to do and they alone will have to implement any action and ultimately live with the consquences. The coach can and sometimes will, offer additional information, ultimately it is up to the client whether they use it or not.

The role of the coach is not advice giving....as the role of the gardner is not to advice the potatoe when and how exactly the potatoes should develop. The giving of advice implies a sense of knowing better than the client and an obligation to honour that advice, even if it may not be in their best interests. Coaching is facilitating and encouraging the independance of the client through empowering them to generate and consider the options available. A gardner does this for his potatoes with the type of soil, fertilizer, watering and providing a location where the sun is warm...it is this nuturing and encouraging that grows the potatoes.


Yes, growing potatoes relates to the whole potatoe, this includes everything to do with that seed potatoe that Across the Creek Organics sold to me at the Winter Market. The process of Crossover Coaching relates to the whole person, coaching isn't just about professional issues or just about personal life. My experience shows that difficulties in either part of a persons life are often present in the other; therefore, the issues need to be explored in totality rather than in isolation.

Bringing the unfamilar with the familar, to find commonality is always fun...happy gardening!

http://www.crossovercoaching.ca/