Why Business Must Practice Multi-Media Sales Techniques

As spring training gears up for baseball, professional ball players are practicing the skills they have developed over a lifetime to achieve perfection. These professionals are where they are today because they put in the time, energy and discipline of thousands of hours of practice. Their goal is to execute perfection during their practice sessions. Many of them practiced to perfection using video tools and special coaches to assist in their development. The commitment these individuals have made is beyond what many of us could imagine. Their practice efforts prepare them for perfection on the baseball field.
80% of Sales Professionals Stop Practicing
If practice is this important in baseball, why isn’t it like this in sales? Eighty percent of sales professionals stop practicing their sales skills once they reach a level of success they are comfortable with. Why? Most sales professionals believe they know how to handle objections and that the sales process hasn’t changed. They assume that what they have learned hasn’t changed and the success they have achieved will remain with them.
It is a good thing the professional ball players don’t think the same way or they will be replaced in the lineup. Sales professionals need to prepare for the 90 mph fast ball from clients and prospects. The landscape of business continues to shift and change with technology, trends and other factors. When sales professionals don’t practice implementing these new trends and learn what to say or how to demonstrate a solution, they lose.
A New Way of Pitching Sales is Growing
New technology for getting and reaching clients and prospects is changing the way we communicate in business. In one example, on-line ordering portals for business are growing in ways that are replacing salespeople. Pod casting is another way businesses are getting their message out and driving sales to websites. An RSS feed is another way to reach prospects or an industry with new information. However, only about 12 percent of the population knows how to use an RSS feed today. Expect this number to change quickly in the coming months.
With the growth and adoption of web meetings, streaming media including audio and video, salespeople can multiply their efforts and reach more contacts. The bottom line is that salespeople must practice and sharpen their sales skills using new technology and communication tools.
The Impact of a Multi-Media Generation
If businesses and salespeople are not practicing multi-media new sales capability, they won’t be effective. This means that if you are not developing and practicing new sales skills, you are falling behind. The internet makes it easy to learn about these new sales tools. You can join webinars, pod casts or telephone conference calls to learn more.
Consider this, professional baseball players don’t practice for just one pitch. They prepare for the fast ball, the curve ball and the sinker because they never know what the pitcher will throw at them. So, just as in baseball, every professional salesperson should practice new sales skills and be prepared for anything customers throw at them.

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By Steve Martinez
Steve Martinez is a pioneer in automating the sales process for business and salepeople developing customized action plans for business. http://www.sellingmagic.com

Has Your Packaging Gone To The Dogs?

Whether it's for Fido or for Morris, the market for pet products in "nontraditional" outlets (specific to retail outlets outside the traditional pet store venue) should reach nearly $4.2 billion by 2010, according to Market Trends. This area is expected to grow as pet products move into the luxury and "lifestyle" category such as diamond studded collars or designer duds for your pet. Companies like as Eddie Bauer and Louis Vitton are making luxury pet accessories and “must have” pet products. After all, your pet is the most important part of the family. (Just kidding!) But seriously, there is more money spent on things for pets than on babies - a lot more.

Remember last week when I asked "What's In You Bottle?" Well, it turns out that dogs have special bottled water too. "PetRefresh® is the only water available today that is specifically designed for the daily hydration needs of pets. Not a treat, but a core nutrient for better health." Also a new water product for dogs, OOH's "Pup Cups", is water in a cup for dogs on the go. They got great brand recognition by donating water to the Humane Society for Hurricane Katrina canine victims. I just love this one: K9 Water Co., a Valencia, Calif.-based company, is selling a line of vitamin-enriched bottled waters for dogs over the Internet. http://www.k9waterco.com/. A four-pack comes in four flavors -- Toilet Water (chicken), Gutter Water (beef), Puddle Water (liver) and Hose Water (lamb).
The humanization of pets is more than just as part of the family; they are living longer and healthier lives. There are all kinds of innovations in pet "goodies." The list of packaged things for your dog is endless. In fact, there is even a new word coined, pupperware, to describe this niche. Pupperware n. Dog accessories and toys, particularly ones demonstrated and sold at in-home parties. [Blend of pup and Tupperware.]
But just innovation and being trendy doesn't tell the whole story. People are concerned about a dog’s health too. Vitamins and minerals for Fido present a huge new segment. The big thing in "packaging" is ease of dispensing and use for DIY pet medications. There are a lot of new DIY products offered for when you can do it yourself instead of carting your dog to the vet. Just remember make the instructions simple and easy to read if you want people to buy your product.
Recently "Greenies" (a top selling dog treat) got in trouble with consumers because purchasers claimed the product packaging was not informative enough about the potential choking problem. I don't know the outcome but its important to note that the consumers blamed the package labeling as part of the problem.
Affluent boomers and other empty nesters are looking at Fido as an integral part of the family. They have money to spend and plenty of it so look for an influx of products geared towards this audience. A good example is Harley Davidson. They see money in the 50+ generation and have developed the companion dog products too.
Think about this unique marketing and packaging application too. Prepared meals for dogs, sounds good enough for humans to eat. "BENEFUL® ELEVATES PET FOOD TO NEW HEIGHTS WITH INTRODUCTION OF FIRST-EVER PREPARED MEALS™ FOR DOGS The difference is visible, as Beneful Prepared Meals showcase the eight, mouth-watering varieties and real food ingredients in clear, ready-to-serve, re-sealable plastic containers – a new packaging innovation in pet food. The new product is being launched regionally in 2006 in 50 percent of the U.S."
I just had to use this example, Bow Wow Breakfast Cereal for Dogs. It is a new line of dog food intended for morning consumption. The company that makes it claims it's specifically formulated to meet a dog's needs in the morning. The thing is pets don't buy this stuff; people do. So keep that in mind as you develop your product packaging. First, you have to appeal to the "human" side of the dog owner.
At the Marketing to Women conference at which I recently spoke, I used an example of packaging dog food that appeals to women. Pedigree Dog Food just implemented a reclosable zipper, something SHE will buy. So think "people" when packaging your products for the dogs. You have to first persuade the owner to pick your product up off the shelf. Make sure that in addition to your packaging "going to the dogs" it's attracting the people too.
Some predictions on "hot" packaging trends in the coming months: Baby Boomer Products Environmental Sustainability And Packaging Labeling And Ingredients Statements On Packaging (ongoing) RFID And Packaging

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By JoAnn Hines
JoAnn Hines the Packaging Diva has been on TV, traveled to China, worked with the SBA and spoken at the White House (twice). Why do they seek her out? Because she knows how to package products so that people will buy them. When Faith Popcorn made her business trend predictions for 2006, she called JoAnn to find out what was going on in the world of packaging. Businesses large and small call upon her to solve their packaging problems.

Tracking For Profits

If you can't track it, don't do it.
Every high-performance venture needs a tracking system. A tracking system with well-designed metrics lets everyone know how well they are doing relative to their commitments. It is a guide to whether additional or extraordinary actions need to be taken.
It is one of the first things I set up with my business coaching clients because without a clear set of objective metrics it is hard for people to be clear about their results.
Establish intentions for your project, figure out the critical success factors, determine suitable measurements for each, and set performance targets for those measures.
For example, say your intention is to increase market penetration. The measure is your venture’s sales divided by total sales in your market. Perhaps your current market share is 10% -- good, you have a benchmark, and your new target is 25% by the end of the year.
That’s objective, measurable, and thus... achievable.
Make someone accountable for your project’s performance against each target.
Establish a timely tracking system for each metric, which easily gathers the necessary data.
Develop periodic interim performance targets, and a reporting structure to let everyone involved know how they are doing.
Your performance tracking systems can be kept with pen and paper, or they can be automated on your computer system. However you implement them, keep it simple and don't let the overhead of your tracking system become a burden of any kind.
Below is a very simple system I used to keep track of my page output while writing Faster Than The Speed of Change. It was kept on a computer spreadsheet, but could just as easily been pencil on graph paper. Whenever I was below the line I had catching up to do.
Start with 0 in the lower left corner, write units of measurement along the left axis, and dates of measurement along the bottom. Draw a straight reference line from 0 to your goal, and plot your performance against that goal. Of course the reference line need not be straight; set it up in whatever way reflects the time-relationship of your goals.
If you want to find out how you can set up a performance dashboard and completely systemize your entire business to make it "scalable and saleable" link to http://www.turnkeycoach.com

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By Paul Lemberg
Paul Lemberg is the president of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world's only fully systemized business coaching program guaranteed to help entrepreneurs rapidly create More Profits and More Life™. To get your copy of our free special report with detailed steps on how to grow your business at least 40% faster, even when you aren’t sure what to do next, go to Paul's business coaching website.

Do It Once - Do It Right - Repeat – Automate

The dream for every business venture is to discover the secret formula for success in their industry. It doesn’t matter how they discover the secret formula. The goal is to have one that is not only perfect but is reliable, repeatable and one that can be automated. If you are like me, you prefer doing business with a franchise brand name you can trust. It is the reliability of a repeated experience we prefer. We expect to repeat the same experience from each visit regardless of where the franchise is on the planet.
Franchising Your Sales Formula
We can apply this franchise formula and use their secrets as we develop a personal sales formula for our business. We simply need to follow the same steps they apply. First we need to discover the repeatable sales success formula for sales in our business. This might be similar to discovering the perfect cookie recipe using the right cooking temperature for the perfect length of time using the ideal secret ingredients. Our goal for this assignment is to document then duplicate and automate the procedure. When we finish, we will have a successful sales action plan we can repeat and automate.
The success formula for sales is very similar to our cookie example. As you know, the recipe must be followed or the results will be different. You know what happens when we substitute an ingredient in cooking or fail to follow the recipe. The same poor results will happen in sales. Here are three steps to franchise your sales formula for success.
Document the Events
Document the exact sequence of events including all the ingredients. Treat this exercise like a cookie recipe. You will want to know exactly what you said, when you said it, who you said it to and what you sent to achieve your results. Every business needs this documented but it is amazing how few businesses or salespeople have an actual action plan for sales. Treat this as if you were creating the perfect cookie and each action made a difference in taste. Once you have a successful sales formula, don’t accept substitutions. I once learned a painful lesson when I used baking soda instead of baking powder for cookies. The results were terrible tasting cookies I couldn’t give away.
Duplicate the Action Plan
When we visit the golden arches they duplicate their success formula to achieve consistent results. This is why I enjoy my fries and milk shakes with them. In sales we must learn to duplicate our action plans consistently. If we send mailers in our sales plan as the second step, we should always follow and duplicate this sequence of events. We should be considerate of the timing of our events. If we learn that every four days is the ideal timing, stick with the formula. The key point is meticulous adherence to details of our action plans. We must think of it as franchising our success formula as we duplicate our action plans.
Automate the Sales Events
With the advancements of technology we have numerous opportunities to automate the sales process. There are countless ways we can use computers and software to create systems that automate the sequence of events in the sales process. When we automate the routine sales event actions, we will gain more time for high priority sales actions. We should evaluate and consider everything we do as opportunities for automation. There are ways of merging tasks together, eliminating some and delegating others. We should focus on the important sales tasks and keep the main thing, the main thing. We should always remember the salespersons role is to develop profitable relationships that generate sales through the activities they perform.

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By Steve Martinez
Steve Martinez is the Founder of Selling Magic, a sales revolutionary company dedicated to teaching businesses how to increase sales by automating the best practices of sales. You can reach Steve at http://www.sellingmagic.com

Eliminate Your Prospect's Pain to Close More Sales

For many years, I actually believed my customers and prospects when they gave me excuse after excuse for not buying from me. With my customers, the excuses came when I tried to convince them to try a new product they were not currently using. But from my prospects, the excuses were for not doing business with me at all.
Why is it, you might ask, that one customer was willing to take a chance on a new product and another is afraid of being a pioneer? After all, it is the pioneer who runs the biggest risk of getting an arrow in the back.
There’s no single answer to this question, but many times the answer lies with the prospect’s personality. Some prospects are risk takers and others are so conservative that they will only try something new if everyone of their competitors in the community has already begun to use it and experienced no problems. Other times, the prospect simply has doubts that the salesperson has yet to overcome.
What’s the best way to find out the “real reason?” Ask.
Here’s one way to phrase your question:
“Mr. Prospect, you have told me that [new product name] is attractive, reasonably priced and that you believe it will save you labor dollars. Yet, you still don’t seem to feel comfortable testing [new product name]. If you don’t mind my asking, what is standing between you and giving [new product name] a try?”
Another reason we often find that prospects won’t give a new product a try is because the “devil they know versus the devil they don’t know.” In other words, what they are using now is working for them. They’re not getting any complaints.
Therefore it’s sometimes necessary to make prospects realize that they’re not as well off as they thought they were. Without first suffering some amount of PAIN, many conservative people simply won’t make a move to something new.
How do you make a prospect suffer some pain? Again, some well-designed questions frequently help.
“Have you ever taken time to figure how much labor it’s costing you to manufacturer [name of the product prospect is currently using)?”
“In what ways would it affect your company if one of your key competitors had discovered a way to reduce cost by, say, $1,500 per unit?”
“How much time would it save you if your materials were placed at strategic locations around the job rather than dumped in one spot?”
“How call backs would it save you if we were to completely encase each shipment in plastic to prevent weather damage, theft, etc.”
You have to help your prospects SEE themselves benefiting from your product or service.
By becoming a problem solver rather than merely a salesperson, you’ll find that your sales will really take off. So instead of selling products, try selling solutions to your customer’s and your prospect’s problems.

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By Bill Lee
Bill Lee is author of Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line and 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot. http://www.BillLeeOnLine.com

Can Your Superstar Sales Person Become Your Superstar Sales Manager

Finding the right person to fill the sales management role is a common quandary in wholesale distribution. It can be especially challenging when a decision is based strictly on sales territory performance without regard for the specific skill sets required to lead a sales force.. 2005 has been a good year in wholesale distribution with some industries recording double digit growth rates. With market cooperation like that, most sales people are smiling as they hit or exceed their quotas. Deciding on the right sales person to promote to sales manager can become a difficult and risky decision..
“We need a new sales manager. Let’s promote Tommy, he’s our leading producer in field sales.”
“No! We can’t afford to lose Tommy’s production in the field.”
“That’s not a problem. He can be a working sales manager and still call on his key accounts.”
Most of us should recognize that conversation but not many of us recognize the fallacies that lie within it. In wholesale distribution, it seems that the primary prerequisite for becoming a sales manager is being the top performing sales person. Promoting our top performing sales person to sales manager simply due to results is a big mistake. Personal experience tells me it has less than a forty percent chance for success. Our chance of success is decreased even further if we really believe that our sales manager can manage the sales force and still be solely responsible for a number of high volume accounts.
Different Skil Sets
l It is an undisputable fact that different skill sets are required to become a successful sales manager as compared to being a successful sales person. Selling is a profession that requires professionals. Managing a group of professionals with the type of personalities required to succeed in sales is no easy task. Yet, in my humble opinion, it is probably the most important management position you can hold in a company. Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management builds the platform for success. Sales people are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be sales people. Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection. The reality of the situation is simple. The majority of sales people are not managed well. Let’s look at some common sales management mistakes to help us develop the list of hints I promised that will increase your ability to determine which sales person at your company is likely to succeed as sales manager.
Mistake ----- Low tolerance for process.
Let’s face it, there probably isn’t a sales person alive that likes paperwork and administrative tasks. However, a Super Star Sales Manager will be process oriented. They understand that success in sales is driven by best practice and best practice is built around process. Sales effectiveness depends on predictable and repeatable best practice. The Super Star Sales Manager will create the kind of culture that negates the inherent aberration by sales people for process, structure, detailed and documented action planning.
HINT #1
If your star sales person embraces structure, pays attention to detail, is always current with required communications, documents his action planning process and doesn’t whine about administrative requirements passed down by corporate, chances are he/she will have a high tolerance for process. This means he/she possesses a basic understanding of structure and accountability. Everything isn’t locked up in their head just because they have been doing it a long time and have had great success.
Mistake ----- Weak coaching and mentoring skills
Relationship equity is still a primary ingredient for sales success. However, relationship equity with the customer is quite different than relationship equity with peers, subordinates and executive management. A Super Star Sales Manager will build enough relationship equity with their sales force to be able to provide effective coaching and mentoring in reviewing the sales person’s activities. They understand that you must manage activities and measure results. This coaching and mentoring process includes buddy calls, monthly territory reviews that provide support and resources to leverage individual sales talent. This process includes opportunity recognition and pipeline management. What does the sales person have in the pipeline? Can the sales manager provide proactive support and resources to increase the chance of success?
Hint #2
If your star sales person is reluctant to accept or seek out help, this may be an indication of the Lone Wolf methodology. Maximizing territory performance requires a team effort. Utilization of all resources and support is mandatory to grow market share and maximize profitability. Look for the sales person that is successful but recognizes that they are not alone. Look for the sales person that shares the credit for success, coaches the inside sales staff, recognizes the contributions of customer service personnel and others in the organization. This sales person has also gained the respect of his peers and is often seen giving advice and sharing ideas.
Mistake ---- Lack of development programs and leadership skills training
Leadership skills are extremely important to effective sales management. This is especially true when managing a sales force that leans more to the route mentality, is in a comfort zone, becomes complacent or is focusing on demand fulfillment as opposed to demand creation. The ability to recognize the need to adapt your management style not only to the situation but also to the individual is a key to gaining respect and trust from the sales force. This is a learned skill. Failure to seek out leadership skills training can be detrimental to success. A prerequisite to success in sales management is the ability to recognize talent and develop that talent. A Super Star Sales Manager will recognize talent and is willing to help develop that talent to reach its highest potential. They also prune the garden effectively. This means they hire well but fire even better. Failure to formalize a development program for sales management is a big mistake.
Hint #3
If your star sales person is not interested in attending seminars, doesn’t listen to self development tapes and hasn’t read a sales book in the past year, chances are they believe they are as good as they are going to get. Look for the sales person that is willing to be away from his territory, sacrificing commissions to increase his individual knowledge. This is the type of sales person that is a sponge when it comes to continuing education in the fields of sales. This person not only seeks company sponsored training but is willing to invest his own money and time in self improvement activities. They have a philosophy of continuous self improvement striving to be the very best that they can be.
Mistake ---- A Member of “The Lucky Territory Club”
Numbers alone don’t always tell the story. We need to analyze each individual success story. Just because a sales territory has performed well doesn’t automatically mean the sales person is a star. A ten percent sales growth sounds great but how good is it if the potential growth for that territory should be in the twenty or thirty per cent range. A ten percent sales growth in that territory sounds great but how good is it if the market in that territory actually grew by thirty percent and the sales person was in a comfort zone walking by opportunities daily.
Hint #4
When evaluating your star sales person for potential promotion, analyze the numbers thoroughly. Is the sales person the real reason for that territory success? Are the numbers as good as they appear when you consider all the factors? Determine how this territory was established. Is this sales person responsible for the long term growth of this territory or did they inherit it. Analyze new account development in this territory. Evaluate this sales persons prospecting skills. How many new accounts have been developed in the territory? What kind of penetration success has been demonstrated with existing accounts?
Hint #5
Look for the sales person that has the ability to think strategically. They are willing to sacrifice personal gain for the benefit of long term company success. (A rare quality). A sales person that may be a maverick and shoot from the hip occasionally but every risk they take is a calculated risk. Their personal objectives for territory performance are in alignment with the company’s strategic objectives in relationship to product development,, segmentation, vendor development and margin initiatives. Look for the sales person that has good communication skills internally, one that has learned to listen exceptionally well, a skill that often eludes some of the best sales personnel.
If you are ready to promote your star sales person to sales manager, pay attention to the hints listed in this article. If your star sales person measures up according to the factors discussed in this article, your chance of success increases dramatically. That means your Super Star Sales Person can become your Super Star Sales Manager. If they don’t measure up according to the hints discussed, look deeper into your sales organization for that sales manager or go outside the organization. There is no such thing as entitlement. Remember, different skill sets are required to be an effective sales manager.

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By Rick Johnson
http://www.ceostrategist.com Dr. Rick Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in leadership and the creation of competitive advantage. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information. CEO Strategist – experts in Strategic Leadership in Wholesale Distribution and Sales Management Effectiveness. Jump start your sales force by getting Rick's new book -- Lone Wolf to Lead Wolf, The Evolution of Sales.

5 Ways to Beef Up Sales - Immediately

Last week, one of my clients—we'll call him Rick—had a demo scheduled with a prospect. The standard "show up and throw up" they typically did early in the sales cycle.
Trying to shorten the sales cycle, I asked naively, "Why does the customer want to buy? What are they trying to accomplish?" Rick couldn't tell me. I asked if he thought the salespeople knew. He said no. I gave him an assignment: he had to find out "Why," "Why now," and "What's it worth." Otherwise no demo.
In other words, no compelling reason to buy...No demo.
So Rick took a risk, and is rapidly moving to a fully-paid trial implementation.
Sure, long-term objectives and plans still matter, but I've been getting more and more inquiries focused on "what to do now." Entrepreneurs and executives alike are demanding help on how to improve revenues and profits right away.
How do you make the quickest difference? Focus the bulk of your energy on revenue generation. In other words, sales! And don't do it the same old way either, because -- as you may have noticed -- it isn't working that well.
Here are five ways for your sales force to bring in more business in short order. There are no magic bullets, but just last week I taught one of these techniques to a client (#2) and he used it to close a deal the following day! Use one or use them all. Each technique will have its own effect, and each will multiply the power of the others.
1. Sell return on investment, and sell it to the CFO.
Sales people are complaining that while the pipeline may be full, the deals are taking too long to close. Perhaps that's why the pipe is so full! What are the reasons for this? Companies have money, and in many cases they have needs. But many people are so scared THEIR customers aren't going to buy THEIR wares, they are loath to spend any money themselves. The result? They are only willing to spend money when they absolutely see near-term financial payback, and the CFO is killing many deals.
The solution? Sell the return on investment. Sell the payback. And sell it to the CFO. Arm your salespeople with two things: A series of case studies that document the returns from using your product, and a well-defined ROI process worksheet. Work with the CFO to build the ROI case so that he or she owns it. This is the only way they come to believe it. Make it their idea and instead of killing your deal, they will help you close it.
2. Forget USP. Determine your Usage Cases
Instead of focusing on why your product is the latest and greatest, clarify the ways in which potential customers will use your product to solve specific problems and produce tangible results. Then, instead of touting the "benefits" of your product--which often fall on deaf ears, anyway--engage your prospects in conversations about what costly and quantifiable problems they now have, and how they might use your product or service to alleviate those.
And, as sales guru Mike Bosworth says, don't tell them your offering IS the solution. You're a sales "guy" and they won't believe you. Instead, ask them if your possible solution might help them. If they believe it does, they have accepted your solution as truth. Then get them to tell you, in real dollar terms, what fixing that problem is worth.
3. Increase Sales Training. Use the 10% solution.
But don't expect any one salesperson--even your superstars--to be 100% at every part of your sales process. They almost never are. But there is a way you can raise the level of every person in your sales organization—immediately.
Use this process adopted from W. Edwards Demming's principle of optimization. Break your sales process into as many discrete--but meaningful--steps as you can.. Cold calling. Letter writing. Setting appointments. Identifying pain. Writing proposals. Presenting. And so on. Find out who in your organization excels at each step, and have those reps explain their methods and mindset to the rest of your sales force. Do all the steps at once in a marathon session, or one step at a time. Either way, the results will be amazing.
4. Use the 80/20 Rule. And get rid of the bottom 20.
There's no room in today's world for mediocre producers. Hold each member of your team accountable for reaching two kinds of performance benchmarks: results measurements, which include not only revenue, but perhaps new accounts and repeat business, and action measurements, which might include prospecting calls, appointments, and new contacts.
Not every sales person will be a superstar, but every one should pay their own way--and then some. Salespeople who aren't producing not only cost you money, they drag down the performance of your whole organization. You may not pay them very much, but why pay them anything? I suggest you do both yourself and them a favor, and let them go. Don't worry about having an empty desk: that warm chair was an expense your company doesn't need.
If you feel it isn't fair to "dump" them, or if your sales cycle is too long to measure short-term revenue results, give the problem reps a 30-day plan to increase their level of activity in specific ways. That's long enough to see an improvement if there's going to be one.
5. Track your results and work harder
Most entrepreneurial sales organizations fail to analyze their efforts. They have no idea how much effort--or money--it takes to create a new customer. The only indication they have of whether salespeople are "doing enough" is based on the revenue numbers. The answer? Track both activity and results, and use the statistics your garner to quickly raise performance. Break your sales process into a series of meaningful steps, counting each time a rep completes one. Calculate averages and set a benchmark. And while you're at it, analyze the percentage of deals that close whenever you complete that step. That knowledge can dramatically improve your sales forecasts.
Once you establish benchmarks--this one's a no-brainer--RAISE THE BAR. Yes, that's right, because the fact is, revenue isn't coming in fast enough. Do everything discussed above to improve your sales effectiveness--then do more of it. Just working smarter isn't going to cut it. You're going to have to work harder as well. And anyone who doesn't want to? See number 4 above.
I've developed a unique Sales Audit Process based on the work of W. Edwards Demming. This program is guaranteed to produce an immediate 10-25% improvement in your company's sales, or more. If you'd like to find out more about how you can increase sales right away, call me at 858-951-3055, or visit www.paullemberg.com/contact.html and send an email with details about your company's sales situation.

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By Paul Lemberg
Paul Lemberg is the president of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world's only fully systemized business coaching program guaranteed to help entrepreneurs rapidly create More Profits and More Life(tm). To get your copy of our free special report with detailed steps on how to grow your business at least 40% faster, even when you aren’t sure what to do next, go to Paul's business coaching website.

The History of Cigars

No doubt, cigar smoking is a pleasure. Over the period, it is considered as the symbol of status of wealth and class. But, do you wonder from where this fashion of cigar smoking came into limelight and who started this? According to research, cigars have been around for over 1,000 years. It was started by the original native population of the islands in the Caribbean as well as the rest of Mesoamerica in as early as 900 AD. In fact, a ceramic vessel at a Mayan dig site in Uaxactun, Guatemala have been found, which was painted with the likeness of a man smoking a cigar that’s says the glowing past of cigars.
Later Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus had introduced the smoking to Europe. With two of his colleagues Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, Columbus had taken puffs of tobacco wrapped in maize husks, thus becoming the first European cigar smokers.
During 19th century, the popularity of cigars was on its heights. In fact, all the states of United States had a cigar factory. Cigars were more popular than cigarettes making almost everyone a smoker, or lived with one. Later, in the early part of the 20th century, cigar sales were at its peak. According to a report, the weight of tobacco sold in the United States alone in one year would equal the weight of the entire population of 10 states combined. Found everywhere in the united states, cigars were priced as per the size of the pocket of the general population as earlier Americans were not allowed to buy the Cuban cigars.
Online Cigars MarketThe passion of smoking cigars increased with the time. There has been a tremendous rise in the number of cigar smokers now in comparison of past years. Order whether an oscuro cigar, the black one or choose the claro, light brown cigar, make sure you get the right cigar to enjoy that unforgettable experience that lasts forever. By buying cigars online, you can also protect yourself from the duplicate cigars that are common these days. In fact, it also gives you the facility to get cigars at your doorsteps too, no matters you are the resident of any corner of the world.
Cigars are the ultimate experience of smoking. From last 1000 years, the fashion of cigar smoking is in practice and still alluring many aficionados to carry on this great passion.
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By Rachna Agarwal

For more information on buy cigars online visit http://www.selective-cigars.com.
Author is a cigar industry expert.

Point Of Sale Displays

In a competitive market, point of sale displays help solve several of a marketer’s short-term hurdles. The impact of sales promotion measures is not durable like the results obtained through advertising and personal selling. Sale displays by and large are understood and practiced as a catalyst and as a supporting facility to advertising and personal selling.
Point of sale displays differs from advertising in many ways. Whereas advertising is mostly an indirect and subtle approach towards persuading consumers to buy a product, sale displays is a direct and almost open inducement to consumers to immediately try the product. Secondly, advertising normally has long-term objectives like building brand awareness or building consumer loyalty or repositioning a brand, sale displays performs an immediate task of increasing current sales. Finally, advertising helps sales by adding some durable and long-term value to the product, while point of sale displays aid selling by temporarily changing the existing price-value relationship of the product.
While continuing to use advertising to build long term patronage of the consumer, sale displays will come handy to give the occasional spurt required to boost up current sales. Marketing man resort to sale displays to meet several marketing needs such as introducing new products, overcoming a unique competitive situation, unloading accumulated inventory, overcoming seasonal slumps, getting new accounts, retrieving lost accounts and for persuading dealers to buy more/ increase the size of the orders.
The above categorization is based on the marketing problem to be tackled. If we look at the target group to whom sale displays measures are normally aimed at, we find four broad target groups, viz. the consumer, the trade or channel and influential groups. Bulk of the sale displays effort is aimed at the consumer and the trade.

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By Josh Riverside
Point Of Sale provides detailed information about point of sale, point of sale displays, point of sale hardware, point of sale marketing and more. Point Of Sale is the sister site of Fulfillment And Distribution.

Advertising Specialty Distributors

Advertising Specialty Distributors sell and market the products of various manufacturers. These distributors cater to the needs of the people by making the finished Advertising Specialty products available. Advertising Specialty distributors are also known as promotional product distributors. If you are a new Advertising Specialty products manufacturer then the Internet is the best place to look for distributors.
Nowadays, the majority of Advertising Specialty manufacturers are in the business of distribution as well. These companies don’t want to hire any middlemen or distributors to sell their products; they prefer direct contact with the market. They generally manage the orders from large corporate houses along with the smaller businesses. Apart from distributing they also provide services like designing, imprinting and communication.
Generally, major Advertising Specialty Distributors contract with the companies who are either manufacturers or consumers. While looking for an Advertising Specialty Distributor, always look into its track record of the market coverage. This means its range of covering the market and people. If the shop is centrally located or in an industrial area, that distributor will generally have an edge over his rivals. Their main aim is to secure product acceptance and maximum market coverage.
Advertising Specialty products are more popular than ever; there are 15,000 to 20,000 distributors in the U.S. market alone. So if you’re new to the market or an old player who desires to make a mark, then try to go in for a big and established Advertising Specialty Distributor, who can take your product places. But make sure the chosen distributor fulfills all your requirements.

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By Eric Morris

Advertising Specialties provides detailed information about advertising specialties, advertising specialty companies, advertising specialty distributors, advertising specialty manufacturers, and more. Advertising Specialties is the sister site of Outdoor Banner Stands.

Advertising Specialty Distributors

Advertising Specialty Distributors sell and market the products of various manufacturers. These distributors cater to the needs of the people by making the finished Advertising Specialty products available. Advertising Specialty distributors are also known as promotional product distributors. If you are a new Advertising Specialty products manufacturer then the Internet is the best place to look for distributors.
Nowadays, the majority of Advertising Specialty manufacturers are in the business of distribution as well. These companies don’t want to hire any middlemen or distributors to sell their products; they prefer direct contact with the market. They generally manage the orders from large corporate houses along with the smaller businesses. Apart from distributing they also provide services like designing, imprinting and communication.
Generally, major Advertising Specialty Distributors contract with the companies who are either manufacturers or consumers. While looking for an Advertising Specialty Distributor, always look into its track record of the market coverage. This means its range of covering the market and people. If the shop is centrally located or in an industrial area, that distributor will generally have an edge over his rivals. Their main aim is to secure product acceptance and maximum market coverage.
Advertising Specialty products are more popular than ever; there are 15,000 to 20,000 distributors in the U.S. market alone. So if you’re new to the market or an old player who desires to make a mark, then try to go in for a big and established Advertising Specialty Distributor, who can take your product places. But make sure the chosen distributor fulfills all your requirements.

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By Eric Morris

Advertising Specialties provides detailed information about advertising specialties, advertising specialty companies, advertising specialty distributors, advertising specialty manufacturers, and more. Advertising Specialties is the sister site of Outdoor Banner Stands.

New Marketing And Promotional Ideas

New marketing and promotional ideas! Free! Most are related to internet-based businesses, but even those can usually be adopted in some way to other businesses. Here are half a dozen marketing ideas to get you thinking.
A one-hour coupon. Offline businesses that want to increase the traffic to their websites can announce an "internet coupon" good for a free drink (or whatever). The coupon would be up on the site for an hour, sometime on a Friday, say. Visitors will return again and again to try to be there at the right time to get the freebie. If you collect pay-per-click advertising fees, this repeat traffic might be especially profitable.
Free gift article teaser. A free gift is certainly not a new marketing idea, but it hasn't been done much in internet article "resource boxes." My click-throughs from articles increased when I started putting in the author's resource box, "For more information and a free gift, visit..." The gift is usually a short course, or an e-book. If you don't want to write an e-book, you can find one with free distribution rights.
Word links for sale. Maybe you have heard about the entrepreneur that sold a million pixels on one web page for a dollar each. Advertisers could buy a minimum of 100, and the image would link to their site. I've seen many copycats, but I haven't yet seen anyone selling words. This could be even better for advertisers, because they could buy the words that are relevant to their products. A page full of random words isn't pretty, but these things get publicity and traffic for their novelty.
Product user contests. If you have a product that's used in many ways or many places, this is a great promotional gimmick: a contest to see who has used their cell phone, watch, or whatever in the wildest place or the most unusual way. ("I took my walkman to the north pole!") Customers could post their stories and photos directly to your company web site. They wiould return repeatedly to see new stories, and the results of the competition.
Advertising on cereal boxes. A lot of time is spent staring at cereal boxes. Perhaps you could get a good rate on advertising on them. There have had some advertising, but no boxes covered in ads yet. Brokering ad space on cereal boxes could be a good business to get into.
Pay for article placement. Many of us distribute articles to generate traffic to our web sites, and many also pay to advertise. Since articles are especially good marketing tools, why not pay to have other webmasters put them on their sites? This is done for free now, but not often enough. Maybe offer a small one-time fee, with a minimum time commitment. Explain that leaving the article there forever can generate search engine traffic.
Put ads on private cars, advertising on sidewalks, have a contest to see who can get your product mentioned on and seen on TV - there are endless possibilities for new marketing and promotional ideas.
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By Steven Gillman

Steve Gillman has been exploring new ideas for decades. Visit his site for invention ideas, business ideas, story ideas, political and economic theories, deep thoughts, and more. Get a free gift too: New Ideas (http://www.999ideas.com)

Ball of String Sales Supervision

How many times have you hired a new sales person and because he or she was experienced and successful somewhere else, they understand how to be successful in your organization? Moreover, did you take for granted that the new salesperson understood what was expected of them on the very first day they began with you? And unfortunately sometime later discovered they do not have your company’s sales process, policies, procedures and prices well understood?
In many ways you vest authority to your salespeople to make instantaneous decisions when in the customer and prospect presence. Unless your salesperson is fully knowledgeable (and that means tested in some fashion) about how it is done in your company, predictably a few things will come unraveled.
Try this the next time you bring a new salesperson aboard; that is try the “ball of string” approach.
As you verify assigned minor goals and objectives are being completed, you can let a little string off the ball to see how the increased authority and responsibility is handled. Then, as more difficult objectives are completed you let a little more string out, giving a little more opportunity to demonstrate their grasp of your company. After successive measurement periods you will have an understanding of exactly what the new salespersons' capabilities are so far. Now you are in a position to identify what skill set, additional product or company knowledge is required for enhanced performance - or if corrective action needs to be taken.
Why do this? Coaching your salespeople to improved performance involves understanding any present competencies, as well as those areas that need shoring up and improvement. When you turn your new salespeople ”loose” if you will, you will discover further along that what you had assumed at the start was most likely premature. They are not ready to be considered a full-fledged salesperson – at least not yet in your organization. Assuming they are up to speed too soon probably will require you to intervene, or worse yet perform triage in rectifying scenarios created from lack of company policies, procedures, processes, practices and product knowledge. Also expect to receive phone calls from your prospects and customers asking you ‘what is going on with your company anyway?’
Try the “ball of string” technique the next time you select and hire any new salesperson. Letting a little string out as you go and as objectives are meet ensures you know where the new hire is in their understanding of your organization. You’ll find you understand how well the basics are understood, as well as what you need to address with them so they continue to improve. Through continuous observation and coaching, you will always be able to judge what remains open for improvement; letting a little more string off the ball as you go.
And oh yes, lest we fail to mention, something for your own piece of mind.
Doing it this way will avoid being awake nights wondering when you personally must get involved in sweeping up the broken glass created by incorrect information about your company’s sales process, policies, procedures and prices with your customers and internal support organization. Moreover, the last thing you want to deal with is an upset customer that is barraging you with complaints about the new salespersons' sales style.

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By Don McNamara

Don McNamara is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and is President of Heritage Associates, Inc. http://www.heritage-associates.net
Heritage Associates is a full service sales management consulting, training and coaching company. Don also speaks and writes on the art and science of superior sales management and top sales performance.
With over 30 years sales experience from the field level to executive sales management, in his career he has been an individual contributor, corporate sales training manager, regional manager, national sales manager and vice president of sales. Don is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants, where he serves as Professional Development Chair and the National Speakers Association.

Overcoming Call Reluctance

Everyone in marketing faces it at one time or another - reluctance to pick up the phone and make calls. Logically, it makes no sense to feel that way. We believe in our product or service. We have a script that’s either been given to us or one that we’ve carefully written out. We have a list of prospects that are at least somewhat targeted. We know that when someone says “No”, it’s not directed at us. And still… the phone weighs a ton.
OK. You decide that the pain of being broke is greater than the pain of “cold” calling, so you commit to making calls each and every day. Or at least commit to try. Or try at least some days each week. For a while anyway…
We’ve all been through all of this before, and guess what? IT DOESN’T WORK! We’re still reluctant to make the calls we know we need to. So what’s the deal? Are you just “bad” at calling? Is it that calling only works for some but not most of us?
The answer, of course, is that calling can work for any one of us. It’s a matter of finding the right “key”(s) to open that door of calling success. We need to address why the typical “cold” call isn’t effective. We’ll start with the obvious issue. Calling strangers causes most people some amount of anxiety. Why does it make us feel so anxious and apprehensive? I’ve found that there are four reasons that cause people to feel anxious about calling. If any one of them exists, anyone would feel anxious about making a call. Here they are:
1) We feel that we sound like a telemarketer. Somewhat unprofessional and/or insincere.
2) We aren’t sure how to effectively start the call.
3) We aren’t sure how to effectively steer the conversation.
4) We aren’t sure how to comfortably and professionally end the conversation.
Let’s look at each one of these issues separately and find out how to put them behind us.
1) We feel that we sound like a telemarketer
What makes a telemarketer sound like a telemarketer? Think about it for a moment. You know the drill – we’ve all received telemarketing calls both at home and at work. What is it about that call that marks it as a telemarketing call? There are several factors that make us cringe at these calls. First off, telemarketers are either overly friendly to start with or they sound completely disinterested. Both make the caller sound insincere. Secondly, telemarketers talk and rarely ask. The call is all about their product and service and not about the person who received the call. Thirdly, they usually plow through their script, not allowing us to get a word in edgewise. And fourth, it’s always evident that they’re reading a script to you rather than speaking to you as a person. Those four factors generally mark the call as a telemarketing call.
How do you keep people from viewing you as a telemarketer? Simple. Don’t do those things!
a) When you call, don’t be overly enthusiastic and don’t be disinterested or matter-of-fact in your tone. Speak in an appropriate, natural tone and manner.
b) As you get into your conversation, ask questions. Be consultative. Remember, this is about your prospect, not about you.
c) & d) Practice your script so it is as conversational as possible. I always write out my script so it reads as naturally as possible. It’s usually not perfect writing but it is always natural and easy to say.
2) We aren’t sure how to start the call
The thing that annoys most of us when a telemarketer calls is that they dive right into some sales pitch without even knowing whether we have the time or interest in hearing about what they have to say. The most effective way to be viewed as a professional is to act like one. As an example, here is the way I start my marketing calls:
“Bob? Good Morning. This is Michael Beck. How are you today? (pause) Bob, I’m an executive coach (pause – I want to make sure they understood what I just said) and have worked with insurance managers for a number of years. Do you have a few minutes to chat?”
As simple as the above exchange is, it serves a number of important purposes:
a) In short order, I’ve told him who I am and what I do.
b) I said his name two times. (People love to hear their own name. Read “How to Win Friends and Influence People”)
c) I began to establish credibility. (“I’ve worked with insurance managers for a number of years.”)
d) I asked permission to take some of his time.
3) We aren’t sure how to steer the conversation
We ended the start of our phone call with a question: “Do you have a few minutes to chat?” There can only be three answers to that question – “Yes”, “No”, or “What is this about?”
• If the answer is Yes, you’re off and running.
• If the answer is No, you could say you’ll call back or ask when a good time to call back would be, but why not use the opportunity to get more information? Since you’ve already told him who you are and what you do, why not ask: “Would you like me to call back?” The answer will either be Yes or No! Either way you should be happy. Either you’ll know not to waste your time trying to reach a disinterested prospect or you’ll have a somewhat pre-qualified prospect on your list!
• If the response is, “What is this about?”, have a short explanation of why you’ve called prepared, something like: “I wanted to share some of what I do, find out what your initiatives are, and see whether what I do could help you reach your goals faster and easier.”
Pretty straightforward isn’t it? …
If you approach the meat of your conversation in a way to see if you can help your prospect, rather than sell them something, it’s quite easy to have a stress-free, effective conversation.
No matter what the goal of your call is, at some point the discussion needs to draw to a close with a “trigger” question. “Can we set up an appointment to go over this in more detail?” or “Here’s what we should do next…”
4) We aren’t sure how to end the conversation
How you handle the end of your conversation will determine you well you protect your attitude. We ended the middle of our conversation with a question (see a pattern here?). There can only be three answers to your question – “Yes”, “I need more information”, or “No”
• If the answer is Yes, again you’re off and running.
• If the answer is a request for more information, have a simple process ready to provide prospects with additional information and/or credibility-building materials, get a commitment for a follow-up call, and set it up as an appointment in both your calendar and theirs. Don’t leave the follow-up as a vague process. Inotherwords get a phone appointment and avoid endless voicemails and phone tag.
• If the answer is No, my preference is to thank them for their time and candor, ask them if they’d like me to give them a call back in 6-12 months, and then hang up!
Let me close with a couple of perspectives that have served me and others well over the years.
One perspective is that if you find that any one prospect means a great deal to you, it’s a sure sign that you aren’t finding enough prospects. Put in more effort. Then everything else takes care of itself.
The other perspective that I have found helpful pertains to rejection, and is illustrated in this story:
Imagine you have a recipe for fantastic chocolate chip cookies and bake them to perfection. They’re absolutely delicious! You take a tray of these cookies around to people, asking them whether they would like one. The first person takes one and loves it. The next person you offer the cookies to declines - they are full, don’t like chocolate, or don’t want sweets. Here is the key question: “Does the fact that the second person didn’t want your cookies affect the quality of the cookies or the skill of the baker?” Clearly the answer is no. Their decision doesn’t have anything to do with the cookies or the baker. Their decision was about what’s going on in your their life, not yours.
When you create an effective phone process – knowing how to get into and out of conversations – and understand that a “No” truly is not about you at all, calling becomes more comfortable and it becomes easier to make many more calls. The result? Financial Success!
Copyright 2006 Exceptional Leadership, Inc.

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By Michael J Beck

Michael Beck, "The Insurance Coach" is an Executive Coach and Recruiting Activist, and helps insurance professionals succeed faster and easier. He can be reached at 866-385-8751 or mbeck@theinsurancecoach.com Visit his website to learn more: http://www.TheInsuranceCoach.com You can subscribe to his newsletter here: http://www.theinsurancecoach.com/Subscribe.htm

Sales Managers: Get Your Team Up For The Game!

If you’re a sports fan, or an athlete, as I am, you know when you or your team are “flat” and are just phoning-in their performances, and when they’re juiced, and ready to go.
It makes a crucial difference in sports, as well as in selling.
In both situations, we have to get up for the game, and if you’re a sales manager, it’s your duty to psych up your players before every engagement, whenever possible.
As a former sales manager, and as a sales coach and consultant, I advocate having frequent sales meetings for this purpose. Meet, greet, and motivate your people before every shift, if they sell from inside.
If they’re outside sellers, try to arrange frequent telephone conferences to achieve the same thing,
Remind them of their sales targets, and try to tell inspiring stories, or share recent customer testimonials with them.
Every meeting should give them another reason to feel proud of themselves and what they’re selling.
You can use these get-togethers to review closing techniques, or to introduce better techniques of any kind. And most important, team members can discuss what’s working for them, which their peers don’t get a chance to see and to hear for themselves.
But the key deliverable from a successful meeting is emotion. They should get a boost, feeling higher and more energized than before.
One of my salesmen said to me, after our umpteenth meeting, “Gary, I might be able to make more money somewhere else, but nothing is going to be this much fun!”
Mission accomplished!

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By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Why This Car Is Smarter Than Most Customers!

I’ll never forget taking my first test drive in a Mercedes.
The salesman was related to dealership’s owner. And he was anything other than a chip off the old block.
Papa was elegant and cultivated, and very much a gentleman, prone to understatement.
The kid was brash, spoiled, impatient, and a lot of other things you can imagine.
We were driving in a residential area, and I was concerned that the pickup was hesitant.
He told me to push the pedal to the metal, and it didn’t help, much. I thought this car might be able to do 60 in a half-hour, or so, if you timed it on a track.
Anyway, the ride came to a conclusion, but not before I asked a question about the transmission, which seemed jerky, from gear to gear.
Obviously frustrated with me, perhaps partly because I was younger than the demonstrator, he said I could stop worrying about the mechanical integrity, because “This car is more intelligent than most people!”
Hey, I know a compliment when I hear one, and this was anything but.
All I could do was smile. I had never heard of insulting your way to a sale, but this seemed to be just such an attempt. Did he actually expect to earn my business this way?
Recently, I spoke to a sales manager in a different industry, and he revealed that he loves to insult prospects, that they actually seem to appreciate it.
No, he’s not in the whip business, buggy, or otherwise.
All I can say is that the car dealer that insulted me has gone through its share of hard times, because the nameplate it represents has been plagued by quality problems.
Moreover, it has faced excruciating competition from other brands such as Lexus and Infiniti, to name a few.
Now, those are some intelligent cars!

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By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Increase Your Failure Rate: Go for the NO!

Interview with Richard Fenton as he talks about striving to get "no" instead of a "yes" when sales pitching. Read on!!
Reader Views is please to have with us Richard Fenton, author of “Go for No!” With the world being inundated with books that give sales training techniques for getting to the “yes” Richard recommends the opposite – going for the “no.” Welcome Richard.
Irene: First of all, what inspired you to write “Go for No!”?
Richard: Basically, Go for No is my personal story. Most of my life I have allowed the fear of failure and rejection to rule my actions, so much so that I wasted years not pursuing my dreams. Of course, this is not to say that I have “mastered” the art of courage. Courage requires daily focus; in that way I am clearly a “work in progress.” And I’ve always wondered what it would be like to meet the person you will one day become, say 10 or 20 years in the future. What would they (you) be like? What could they teach you? What advice would you give yourself if this were actually possible? And, since I think most people have a fear of failure and rejection… as I do… I decided to make that the main theme of the book.
Irene: How did you pick the characters for your book?
Richard: Eric Bratton, both as the main character and his alter-ego “future self”, is me. The first EB is the person I was; the second is the person I am becoming. I guess you could say the “real me” is somewhere in the middle.
Irene: Does the “real me” continue to fluctuate between the two alter-egos?
Richard: Absolutely! I would love to be able to say that the strong me is present all the time. But, even though I know better and literally wrote the book on this, I still slip into weak me mode sometimes. But that’s what being courageous is all about. Courage is not the absence of fear, but acting in the face of it. Without the fear, there is no courage.
Irene: Did you base any of the characters on your own life experience?
Richard: Yes. Harold, the manager who tells Eric to “go for no” is a real manager from my past who had a profound effect on my life by telling me exactly that. All the rest are simply vehicles for the concepts I wanted to express.
Irene: The writing style is different from most books in this genre, yet the message is as powerful, or more powerful, than books that are written giving techniques and tools for improvement. Why do you believe readers will “get it” with your book as compared to others?
Richard: First, thanks for the compliment. As to your question, yes, I hope so. I’ve always responded more to stories that keep me engaged, where there is a vested interest in a character and curiosity as to what will happen next in the story, like in movies or novels. It’s also a lot more fun to write, which is important to me personally.
Irene: You focus on the “no” aspects. We are taught to direct our thoughts to the “yes” aspects, the so called positive focus. Tell us how “no” actually is a positive after all.
Richard: We are all taught, directly or indirectly, that “yes” is the destination in life, to get what we want, whether we’re selling a product, asking for a raise, convincing the guy or girl of our dreams to marry us, or getting our kids to eat their spinach. What we’re not taught is that the willingness to hear “no” is how we get there. In that way, yes and no are not opposites; they’re simply opposite sides of the same coin.
Irene: Most of us don’t want to hear “no” for an answer. It starts in childhood and continues throughout life. You are proposing a concept that is hard to switch to. What are your suggestions for changing a mindset that has been integrated into the thought pattern throughout the lifetime?
Richard: This is an interesting question. We get a lot of letters from people who’ve read the book, many who say they were immediately able to make the switch, and others who struggle with it. It’s important to realize that courage is a muscle like any other physical muscle; building it requires exercise! This is not to say it’s easy. Success is simple, but it’s never easy.
Irene: As a key-note speaker you present a step-by-step process for setting “no-goals” to increase productivity. Again, this is against the rule. Explain to us how your theory actually does work.
Richard: Let me use how we “sell” my speaking services to our clients. To make the living I want to give 50 keynote presentations a year, basically one a week. Statistically, from our experience, each of those dates (the “yeses”) involves us getting turned down (the “noes”) approximately 100 times. So, we have two choices; one is to go for 50 yeses per year, the other is to go for 5,000 noes. That’s our “no” goal: to get rejected 5,000 times per year. If we do that, the yeses take care of themselves.
Irene: This all reminds me of the statistics courses I struggled through in college. It is finally making sense. However, most of us have rejection issues. What are your suggestions on facing 5000 noes just to get 50 yeses. That is a lot of rejections to face and the self-esteem could really be stretched.
Richard: One of the most important things to realize is that “no” isn’t personal. When we personalize it – meaning that we see the no as a rejection of ourselves – then, yes, the constant rejection can take a chunk out of our self-esteem. So the key is to not take it personally. For example, I attended a workshop recently and one of the things we learned was to think “SWSWSW” whenever someone says no to us.
Irene: Which means…?
Richard: Some Will, Some Won’t, So What?! The rejection has nothing to do with you – it’s only personal if you allow it to be. Or, as Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.”
Irene: A lot of us have a fear of failure. Most of us don’t want to admit it or don’t even realize that is the basis of non-success. Please give us some insight on how we can address our fears.
Richard: Wow, what a wonderful segue to mention my next book, co-authored with Andrea Waltz, called “The Fear Factory” which is due out in May, 2006. While I’ve got you, want to buy a copy? I figure the worst that could happen is that you’ll say no.
Irene: I’m sure your next book will be as revealing as “Go for No!” Is there anything else you would like the reading audience to know about you or your book?
Richard: Go for No! is a life philosophy… we urge anyone who wants to do more… or be more… to get it and read it. And let us know about how the go for no philosophy has affected them. This is more about me and my book… I want to help the world to go for no! Readers can find us at http:www.goforno.com

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By Irene Watson

Irene Watson is the managing editor of Reader Views http://www.readerviews.com

Picasso's Five Sales Strategies

Pablo Picasso was one of the most influential artists of the last century, no question about it.
The other day I spent some extra time at the Norton Simon Museum, in Pasadena, checking out his paintings, and then his sculptures, and I got to thinking about what he could teach salespeople.
There are at least five solid lessons:
(1) Picasso put "The Law of Large Numbers" to work. (See my audio program with this title, published by Nightingale-Conant.)
He was extremely prolific, having created, literally thousands of works over his career. Compare that to DaVinci, whose significant output was extremely limited, however brilliant. Salespeople should be constantly opening new accounts, more than they think they need to reach their quotas and to have a nice living. Push yourself to create a lot, every day, that’s the Picasso way!
(2) Picasso, as you may know, used various expressive styles. He had a “blue” period, dabbled in cubism, realism, minimalism, and so forth. There are lots of ways to communicate with your public, so become adept at all: phone, face to face, voice mail, email, etc.
(3) Ignore your critics, internal and external. If you watch the movie about Picasso, starring Anthony Hopkins, you can see how self-confident this guy was, especially in his romances and work. He didn’t indulge in self-criticism, and he had no time to listen to his external critics. In fact, he probably outlived most of them!
(4) Lead, and let others follow. Emerson said to be great is to be misunderstood, and while Picasso did enjoy commercial success during his lifetime, he set his own course, boldly creating styles unique to himself. One of the sculptures I like a lot at the Norton Simon Museum actually looks a hundred years ahead of our time, and he shaped it in 1909! I think it may take audiences that long to really “get it,” but so what?
(5) Enjoy yourself! This guy loved life, and was filled with energy and vitality. He left nothing un-done; you can see this in the movie about his life. Work should be involving and enjoyable. If it’s drudgery, it’s not just killing your creativity; it’s probably killing you.
Most great artists outlive everyone else, except great comedians. We could do worse than to model our careers after luminaries such as Picasso, Erte, and Dali, to name a few.

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By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Practical Tips to Motivating Employees

Some employees are true self-starters and seem to motivate themselves to excel. But even with your highest flyers, there could be times where he or she hits a funk and needs some positive motivation. Look to these tips to help you through the trial:
Make sure the goal is crystal clear - The first step in motivating an employee is ensuring he very clearly understands the goal and when it needs to be met. If goals aren’t clear or if you can’t articulate the goal yourself, spend time getting clarity with both yourself and the employee.
Put them on the same side of the table as you - Design your rewards (financial, prestige, etc.) around attainment of the goal and get them working with you as opposed to against you. Putting some tangible rewards around goal attainment will allow the employees to see the fruits of their labor.
Don’t be afraid to expose poor performance - If progress isn’t being made against the goal, be very explicit and deliberate about showing objective performance measures and progress against the measure. Objectivity is very important here; if you are concerned about being objective, use a trusted colleague or HR representative to cross-check you.
Clearly articulate the consequences of continued poor performance - Ensure the employee knows what can happen if performance doesn’t improve. It could be loss of financial reward, a lower job title, or in extreme cases, termination. Again, be objective and use a trusted colleague or HR rep if necessary.
Follow through - Don’t make idle threats or statements that the employee knows you won’t follow through on. If you set a goal to be achieved by a certain date and both your reward and consequence are clear; be prepared to follow through on either the reward or consequence.
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By Lonnie Pacelli

Lonnie Pacelli has over 20 years' experience with Accenture and Microsoft and is currently president of Leading on the Edge™ International. Lonnie's books include "The Project Management Advisor: 18 Major Project Screw-Ups and How to Cut Them Off at the Pass" and "The Truth About Getting Your Point Across". Get the books, leadership products, other articles, MP3 seminars and a free email mini seminar at http://www.leadingonedge.com

Try Selling The Finer Things In Life

I started my career by selling newspapers on street corners and then when I was old enough, I landed a job with Time-Life Books, promoting their best-selling nature, science, and food libraries by phone.
Since then, of course, I’ve sold a lot of other things. But the thread that runs through my career, what I really enjoy, is creating and selling knowledge: seminars, consulting, coaching, books, tapes, newsletters, and the like. I suppose I just have an affinity for learning and teaching.
Others may like technology or travel or agriculture or boating.
I bring this up because you should sell items for which you have a good temperamental fit, goods and services that you respect or personally enjoy. If you don’t, I believe you’ll underachieve, and worse, you’ll be unhappy. And you might blame the profession of selling for your woes, instead of identifying the real culprit.
If I were in the car business today, I’d sell Porsches. I drive one, and I wouldn’t mind collecting them, when I have a close encounter with a ton of extra money!
But I wouldn’t be happy at all, selling average cars. While they have their place, they simply don’t inspire me.
There are cars on the market that cost as much, if not more than Porsches, but I know, from direct experience, that their engineering is vastly overrated, and they spend too much time on hoists. They’re not for me. I’ll have nothing to do with them, given a choice.
Call it snobby, but I know myself. I’d be a misfit if I had to sell something I didn’t respect or enjoy.
I’ve often thought about the maxim that a salesperson must “believe” in his product. I’m not sure that exactly captures what I’m referring to. I think appreciate, admire, enjoy are closer to the mark.
I knew a fellow manager at Time-Life who, on more than one occasion said, “If they didn’t pay me to do this, I’d hang around for free, just to watch!”
If you feel that way about what you’re selling, or about the company for which you’re working, then that is one of the best rewards you can get.
Then, you’re selling one of the finer things in life.
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By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.