Speaking Engagement Update

It went GREAT, at least from the comments I heard from those in attendance. I look forward to speaking next month at a networking event held by a local CPA and Tax Strategist, Jennifer Davis.

My Manual should be ready for sale by then and the webiste should be up and ready as well.

The next post will be back on topic - Selling and Effective Communication Skills.

Have a POWERFUL Day!

Speaking Engagement

I'll be away from the regular posts as I'm preparing for a speaking engagment.

Talk with you soon...

PS I'll share with you any new insights as a result of the talk. Wish me luck!

Must Read - from The Milken Institute

In times of historic change, it’s instructive to look at some facts:
- The stock market is down 50 percent.
- Banks are in trouble and have curtailed lending.
- Commentators predict widespread industrial bankruptcies.
- Unemployment is rising fast. - Interest rates are volatile.

It all sounds familiar. But those headlines aren’t from today. They’re from 1974. Doomsayers foresaw disaster 35 years ago, predicting hundreds of corporate bankruptcies. New York City and State, and utilities like Con Edison, seemed on the brink of collapse. Business publications wrote that major money-center banks would fail and ran articles like, “I’ll Never Own a Stock Again!” Struggling companies got little help from financial institutions, which had problems of their own. Businesses with the highest returns on investment, the most innovation and the fastest growth were starved for capital. The debt of good companies sold for pennies on the dollar.
In 1974, as now, those who once thought they had the answers came to realize their assumptions were flawed. But opportunity emerged from that crisis as people with creative solutions and the skill to implement them stepped forward and developed new ways to access capital. Over the next two years, the markets recovered strongly. That skill in finding new opportunities when things look bleak is part of what economists call human capital. It’s an asset I began to appreciate in my studies of credit at Berkeley and of capital structure at Wharton four decades ago. Later, in financing companies that could grow and create jobs, I always considered management skills as important an asset as numbers on the balance sheet. And it’s never more important than in times of crisis.

Why post this to a blog dedicated to all things sales related? Obvious - it's important not to loose sight of where we are and since history has a way of repeating itself, to be reminded that it's okay to contact a client, prospect for new clients, make sales and help by doing our part as professional salespeople to pull this economy and this amazing nation out of the mess it has found itself in.

Have a POWERFUL day!

Scripts

A well crafted script will also allow you appear as the professional in any given sales environment because you took the time to ask the important questions. The prospect gets it...they're thinking that you care more about them than what's in it for you. That's when the magic starts.

talk again soon...

Scripts

One of my favorite topics! When I first started selling something tangible, I think I was around 9 or 10 and as best I can remember it was GRIT magazine (newspaper really). I sgined up, they sent me a few copies and I went door-to-door selling the paper. I was excited! I got my first batch of papers along wiht instructions as to how to sell them. It was a SCRIPT! Worked great, too as I remember. I sold just about everyone of those papers too.

One of my daughters is pretty involved in Girl Scouts an dhas been since she was old enough to join. Those cookies are pretty good too (well, most of them are anyway). They give each of those girls a suggested script to follow when they head out knocking on doors! and you thought they were making it up each and every time...;)

Scripts are powerful when they are well crafted because they keep the conversation moving forward, determine your prospects motivation & level of interest in your product or service and will allow numerous opportunities to close for an appointment and/or sale.

Anyone out there use a script and want to share your experiences? good, bad, funny...

We'll continue tomorrow...In the mean time, have a POWERFUL day!

Question...

How will Obama's new economic "bail-out" impact your business? What are you finding that's working well? What are your customers and clients looking for from you and others they are doing business with?

I look forward to your replies...

Break In The Action...

We had a ton of snow which began Sunday and lasted most of the day on Monday. I get in the office this morning and find a fax telling me that another blog I had was infringing on their trademark, so I took it down. I wish them well and was even planning to reach out to them regarding a joint venture opportunity. Oh, well. Maybe not.

Anywho...I hope you had a great Monday and I look forward to getting back to business tomorrow. In the mean time, be thinking about scripts. Use them? Love them? Hate them? Write them? If you're not using scripts, you should re-think your lead generation process.

Have a GREAT day!

To-Do Lists

A To-Do list is a GREAT compliment to an air-tight schedule. It allows you to know what to do during the time you have set aside - scheduled - during the day to work on various tasks. The best way to start a to-do list is to take a note pad and starting a the top of the page, write down everything you need to-do now and that has been on your mind (that nagging voice inside your head) for quite a while. It might help to think of the brain-dump mentioned earlier.

After writting down every to-do item you can think of, group them in whatever categories that make sense. Delegate the ones you can to lighten your load and allow more time for the really critical ones. Make sure that during your day, you schedule blocks of time to devote to the items on one or more categories from your to-do list. Make certain to prioritize these to-do list items so you can make the most productive use of your time you can.

Success Is Yours!

Schedule - Time Blocking

One of the fastest ways to get a ton of work completed in a fairly short period of time is to use what I call (and I probably stole the term from someone else) Time Blocking. It's so super effective and so elegantly simple, that many people dismiss it as not complicated enough to actually work...don't make that mistake!

What it is / How it works:
First, look at your day. When do you get up? What do you do and how long does it take you? When do you leave the house and arrive at the office/job? What are the few critical things you MUST do daily and the time frames for them? When do you take lunch? Return calls? Go home? Go to bed? Feel free to add anything and everything else.

Here's an example:
4:30 a.m. Wake up, exercise, read, eat breakfast
7:00 a.m. Leave for office
7:30 a.m. Arrive at office, unpack briefcase, arrange leads & prepare for lead generation activity
8:30 a.m. Begin Lead Generation
10:30 a.m. Return Calls
12:00 noon Lunch & read
1:30 p.m. Return Calls
2:00 p.m. Appointments...
:
:
7:00 p.m. Home
10:00 p.m. Bedtime

Get the idea?

Why is this so effective? Simple. It forces you to focus on the one task to be done or worked on during that prearranged period of time. No interruptions, no distractions, just 100% focus on whatever needs accomplishing during that block of time. For an author, there would be blocks of time for writing, for research, etc. Others may need to allow more time for returning calls or maybe emails in today's environment.

We'll talk about adding the To-Do list to this part of the schedule later.

Have a GREAT weekend!

This Is Too Good Not To Post - Thomas Jeffersons Comments, Quotes & Thoughts

Thomas Jefferson...genius? (yes)...great American (yes)... prophet? (maybe)

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. "

"If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions."

Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:58 "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. "

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. "

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. "

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe ."

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

"Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson said in 1802:"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

WOW... this is what our history classes need to be teaching!!!!

Schedule v. To-Do List

I know what you're already thinking...I do have a schedule and I follow it every day, right? You may be surprised to learn that you actually have a To-Do list that you lovingly refer to as a schedule. a to-do list that you watch over and protect and defend at all costs. a to-do list that you use as an excuse for not getting things done when you said they would be done. Have you ever used the phrase 'I just didn't have time today, look at all I have to get done'? I'll bet you, like me, have used that on many occasions.

To be successful in sales you have to focus on income generating activities most of the time. A to-do list will generally fall into the category of income servicing, not generating. A schedule, with proper blocks of time set aside for certain activities will help you become more focused and more successful faster than anything I've ever experienced, period.

I'll expand on this in later posts...

What the heck is a Brain-Dump?

You're probably asking yourself what a brain dump is and why is it being discussed in a sales related blog, right? Well a brain dump is very effective if used properly to keep your valuable mental space as clear as possible so you can spend the absolute maximum amount of time focusing on the next sale. The way it works is simple and you only need a few items to make it work. First, get yourself a spiral, college ruled, notebook. I like the ones that are about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch think - not to big but not to thin either. Second, get a good pen or pencil. I prefer a mechanical pencil, but that's just a personal preference.

Now that you have your 'hardware', you are all set to do a brain-dump. Before you go to bed this evening, write tomorrow's date at the top of the first clean sheet of notebook paper you come to. Next and in no particular order, write down everything you know you need to get done tomorrow. If there's anything that needs to get done maybe the day after, date the top of the appropriate page and write it down there. Keep going until you've gotten all that stuff in your head out and onto a page in the notebook. Now you don't have to worry about forgetting something that needs to get done because it's written down and your subconscious mind will go to work on all those items while you sleep too. You may wake up with a few great ideas to a problem you've been struggling with just because your brain now has a bit a space freed up to think with.

When you wake up, take a moment before the day begins to prioritize the items on your list as well as look for items that can be delegated to someone else either better qualified or because it's not a good use of your time. Then go to work on the first thing on that list. A word of caution - avoid the temptation to work on easy items first unless this is your first brain dump and just want to clear out all the little things cluttering up your mind.

Hope this helps!

First Post

I plan to post a daily tid-bit of useful information to help those wonderful people who are involved in the worlds oldest profession...sales. My goal is to post at least once daily, normally in the morning. I hope you'll check back often and find something of use for you in your sales carreer. The majority of my topics will generally center around effective communication skills, however it really all depends upon what I think needs to be addressed at the moment.

Make it a POWERFUL day!

Go sell something!