Year: 2021

Is your inbox flooded with offers to self-improvement and success planning classes? It’s funny how every business leader’s inbox overflows with ‘success planning’ and ‘goal setting’ invitations around this time of the year. But before you jump in and join any of those classes/courses/masterminds/coaching sessions here are a few things to consider..

Are your business goals the “exact” same as last year?
Or the year before that?
Or from 5 years ago?

Why?

If your business goals are not changing, could it be because your organization is not making progress towards them?

If that’s the case, you are definitely not alone.
Studies have shown that 80% of New Year Resolutions fail before February.

Here are a few reasons why most “Business Resolutions” don’t work.. (and I’ve been guilty of all of them over the years)

• Borrowed Goals – Around this time of the year planning seems like a mandatory activity. Especially after the challenges that every business faced in the last two years due to Covid, the pressure to plan is particularly strong. Are you planning because you “should” be planning? Are your goals your own or your competitors?
• Planning timeline too long – Most businesses plan for the entire year. Some even plan for the next 5 or 10 years. In my opinion that is too long, it is better to set goals for 3-month or 6-month timeframe and monitor progress and change plans as needed.
• Not considering the ‘how’ – Setting goals without knowing how to get there is important. It’s even a necessary exercise for success in business. But there is a clear difference between not knowing the exact steps and being clueless.
• Too ambitious – Business goals should be grounded in business reality. They should be more than generic “wishes” for your business.
• Not ambitious enough – And yet they should be ambitious enough to make your heart beat a little faster. The key is to set ambitious goals that you can believe in. As a business leader, if you don’t believe in your business goals your team certainly won’t.

So as we’re planning and goal-setting for our organizations for the next year, let’s avoid these common pitfalls and set ambitious goals that are grounded in reality, and then create a detailed plan with a timeline to follow through on each goal.

If you would like to know about how ConvergeHub will help grow your business in 2022, go ahead and reserve a confidential consultation with one of our experts.

To check it out yourself, create a free ConvergeHub account here.

The last two years reminded us that there are MANY things that can affect us that are totally out of our control.

If you didn’t reach your goals this year, my guess would be that the pandemic, lock downs, the need to do everything virtually, and the challenges of working from home discouraged you.

If you missed your goals, a good question to ask yourself would be – Did you give it your best shot in the face of unprecedented challenges?

We all know that when things go wrong we can either focus on the problems or we can focus on what we can control.

And in the last two years things went (very) wrong for many of us.

So what do we do now?

If we want to bounce back in 2022 and make it an epic year, what should we do?

The answer of course is to focus on what we can control.

In your organization, while setting your goals for 2022, know that one of thing that you CAN control is Technology.

In many ways, technology is what kept us functioning through 2020 and 2021. From online team-work to video chats with family to ecommerce groceries… things would have been so much more difficult without the digital tools that we’ve become so used to.

So, in your business growth plans for the next year, keep your focus on Technology.

A recent survey from Digitally Empowered found that 75% of American small businesses were “relying more on digital tools during the COVID-19 crisis”.

ConvergeHub is a CRM built for small and mid-size businesses that will give you the digital tools to:

• Communicate with customers on any channel they choose
• Find new customers through marketing campaigns
• Keep track of opportunities, with a 360-degree view of every customer

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub provides you the digital tools to grow your business in 2022, go ahead and reserve a confidential consultation with one of our experts.

The world is changing at an incredible pace.. we have been hearing about technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for some time now…. and as these technologies mature and come together their impact is going to change the way we live, work and play…

Does the thought of implementing Technology in your organization excite you?
Or does it scare you?
Or both?

Are you fearful of the countless hours to be spent on researching, analyzing, documenting, learning/re-learning, training and re-training?
Or are you excited that leveraging the new technologies can set your business up for 10X growth?

We can be excited by the upcoming technology transformations or we can be scared of it or we can be both… but the one thing we cannot do is ignore it.

So as we are beginning to plan for the next year, it would be a good idea to keep Technology modernization in your plan for 2022.

The first step is to spend some time thinking about it.
Which areas of your business are most manual-task intensive?
Improving which processes will contribute directly to your bottom line?
Focus on those first.

Realize that this is NOT an ‘all or nothing’ proposition.
Business technology implementation in any company is a journey.
You get to choose your path and your pace.
There is no ‘perfect solution’ to arrive at.
You don’t have to get it 100% right to enjoy the benefits.

But you do have to start.

So, just start.
2022 is around the corner and this is as good a time as any to make that commitment.

If you have questions and need someone to bounce ideas off, our team at ConvergeHub is right here for you.

Going into December, I always feel like we have officially entered the season of Bests and Worsts.. you know… it’s that time of the year when you start seeing those important-sounding lists everywhere that proclaim to catalog the ’10 Best [something] of the Year’ or ’20 Worst [something else] of the Year’.

But the last two years were not normal years, and our lists of ‘Bests’ and ‘Worsts’ are not of usual things. For the last two years the list of ‘Worsts’ seemed to be never-ending and threatened to drown out the list of ‘Bests’ that we’ve had to look so hard to find.

But in spite of the long list of ‘Worsts’, I would like to remember the past two years as the years we learned so much.

We learned that we should not take our health for granted, good health is not guaranteed.
We learned that we should not take our loved ones for granted, our journey together is not guaranteed.
We learned that the world is still full of good people who are willing to risk themselves to do what is right.
We learned that we have reservoirs of resilience within us to adapt to tough situations and support each other.

Most of all, we learned that we are all in it together.

And as 2021 begins to wind down and we start planning for 2022, let’s not forget the lessons we learned this year.

Let’s make our New Year Resolutions and set our Goals for 2022 knowing that nothing can defeat the power of human connection.

Here at ConvergeHub, we are committed to using the power of technology to keep you connected with your prospects and customers.

Uncle Ben (Spiderman’s uncle.. duh 😊) once said that ‘With great power comes great responsibility’.. and our friendly neighborhood spiderman Peter Parker took it to heart and lived by that rule..

But in real life how many of us take the responsibility that goes with our power?

The tendency to avoid responsibility is very obvious at work.. sometimes painfully so..

When we have the power to speak up, we choose to stay silent.
When we have the power to innovate, we choose the status quo.
When we have the power to lend a hand, we choose to walk over to the coffee machine instead.
When we notice a mistake and know that we should point it out, we choose to look the other way because it is “not my problem”.

And this has real consequences for businesses.

The lead that would have closed if followed up just one more time..
The customer who would not have left if the rep had looked up the info..
The product that would have better quality if teammates had spoken up about the bugs..

How would your company change if everyone decided to take responsibility for the power they have?

At ConvergeHub, we make sure that your team has access to all the data they need to take responsibility, win more sales and serve customers better.

In our effort to pursue ‘more’ for our companies… more sales, more products, more revenue.. we often tend to neglect to look at the one thing that would help us achieve more… we don’t look at our customer’s perspective.

Maybe we’re too busy..
or too used to thinking the same way..
or too scared of what we will find if we look at things differently..
… we just carry on as if the only viewpoint that matters is our own.

But whether we are looking at our customer’s organization or our own organization, the willingness to look at it from our customers’ viewpoint can make a huge difference to our business.

So, if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and start understanding your customers’ perspective, here are a few ways to start:

• Just Ask – Asking customers directly for their feedback is the best way to know what they are thinking.
• Team Feedback – Unite your team around your customers and build processes that help them gather input from customers.
• Use Tech – Use technology that gives you a 360 degree view of sales, marketing, support and commerce, enabling you to have all data in one place.
• Analyze Data – Gather around your data. The more you understand the data the smarter your decisions are.

Seeing the world from your customers’ eyes can literally change your world.

At ConvergeHub, we are on your team and are committed to doing whatever we can to help you understand your customers better.