http://www.salesroundup.com/blog/
This podcast provides a wealth of material on selling and is a must listen to for any sales professional. Be sure to go back and listen to every issue of the podcast which will require a giant amount of time however I dare you to not find tens of thousands of dollars in ideas to make or save you money. Joe and Mike have got it together and there is much more this summer in their plans for a premium site. Sign up and be sure to share with them that you found the site through Jim Ullery!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
And Now We Know the Rest of the Story!
From the October 5, 2001 print edition
Layoffs may not be good business
Just a few months ago almost everyone around here was saying that what the Capital Region needed most for its economy was more workers. There were more jobs than workers to fill them. We were even hearing about companies that could bring good jobs that were afraid to locate around here because there were just not enough workers.
Making the situation worse were census figures showing that upstate New York had a negative population growth rate. Albany's population fell below the 100,000 mark last year for the first time since the very early 20th century. Schenectady lost nearly 6 percent from 1990 to 2000, and Troy 9.4 percent. Upstate declined; the only population growth was downstate. At the same time, economic development groups were decrying the fact that so many college graduates were leaving the Capital Region every June for jobs in other parts of the country.
Suddenly, the economy is hemorrhaging jobs at a rate not seen since the early '90s when rightsizing and downsizing were the corporate themes. Consumer confidence was weakening before the terrorists flew into the World Trade Center towers. Now it is the lowest ever. These are definitely challenging times.
While the panicked airline industry has been shedding scores of thousands of jobs, it is significant that Southwest Airlines, the unorthodox company that has expressed such conviction to corporate culture, has resisted laying off employees.
Jim Ullery, who operates 360 Solutions, a human resources consulting office in Colonie, says that companies, especially those around here, may be paying some real long-term costs if they seek short-term relief by laying off their workers.
"We wake up one day and see national firms and local firms laying off thousands of people," Ullery said. "We have to ask, weren't these people doing something the week before, weren't we investing in these people the week before?
Laying people off can have a detrimental effect not only to the people who are laid off, Ullery said, but also to the people who remain with the company. The ones who stay get what Ullery calls "survivor syndrome," where their focus becomes to protect their position rather than work for the greater good of the company.
Companies like Southwest Airlines that resist layoffs have a stronger sense of community and build a sense of purpose and strong sense of loyalty among their workers. It is surely no accident that Southwest capitalizes the word Employee in its corporate communications.
But the wave of layoffs could have significant long-term consequences around upstate New York because our cities have been losing population while places like Austin, Seattle, San Jose and Miami have been booming. When people lose their jobs, they may not be here when our companies need them back. I remember talking with several upstate New Yorkers in the early '90s who had left their hometowns because their was no career opportunity for them.
"The most recent people who came to work are the ones that tend to be laid off, tend to be recent college graduates," Ullery said. "Fifteen, 20 years ago there was a surplus of people in the demographic of that age group. The baby boom has passed us by, and if we lay off the young people, the implications are that one decade or two decades ago these labor pools would be available to pull back in. Today they are not there. There are fewer employees available by virtue that the baby boom has passed us by; so if we fail to make the investment in the young people, we have really cooked our goose. If we go forward a couple of quarters and the economy heats up again, where are these businesses going to go to find people?"
When older workers lose their jobs, they have a tough time getting back into the work force and tend to make lifestyle decisions to drop out of the labor market, Ullery said.
Layoffs disrupt the sense of community or corporate culture a company has developed over the years, and that has a value that needs to be factored into the decision.
"If you're going to lay off people, you're choosing to throw away the investment you have made to this point. There's just not large enough field of people to employ right now with the demographic of young people being that much less than it was years ago."
And Ullery warns that the companies that begin rehiring first will get the best people.
MIKE HENDRICKS is editor of The Business Review. He can be reached at 437-9855 or mhendricks@bizjournals.com.
Layoffs may not be good business
Just a few months ago almost everyone around here was saying that what the Capital Region needed most for its economy was more workers. There were more jobs than workers to fill them. We were even hearing about companies that could bring good jobs that were afraid to locate around here because there were just not enough workers.
Making the situation worse were census figures showing that upstate New York had a negative population growth rate. Albany's population fell below the 100,000 mark last year for the first time since the very early 20th century. Schenectady lost nearly 6 percent from 1990 to 2000, and Troy 9.4 percent. Upstate declined; the only population growth was downstate. At the same time, economic development groups were decrying the fact that so many college graduates were leaving the Capital Region every June for jobs in other parts of the country.
Suddenly, the economy is hemorrhaging jobs at a rate not seen since the early '90s when rightsizing and downsizing were the corporate themes. Consumer confidence was weakening before the terrorists flew into the World Trade Center towers. Now it is the lowest ever. These are definitely challenging times.
While the panicked airline industry has been shedding scores of thousands of jobs, it is significant that Southwest Airlines, the unorthodox company that has expressed such conviction to corporate culture, has resisted laying off employees.
Jim Ullery, who operates 360 Solutions, a human resources consulting office in Colonie, says that companies, especially those around here, may be paying some real long-term costs if they seek short-term relief by laying off their workers.
"We wake up one day and see national firms and local firms laying off thousands of people," Ullery said. "We have to ask, weren't these people doing something the week before, weren't we investing in these people the week before?
Laying people off can have a detrimental effect not only to the people who are laid off, Ullery said, but also to the people who remain with the company. The ones who stay get what Ullery calls "survivor syndrome," where their focus becomes to protect their position rather than work for the greater good of the company.
Companies like Southwest Airlines that resist layoffs have a stronger sense of community and build a sense of purpose and strong sense of loyalty among their workers. It is surely no accident that Southwest capitalizes the word Employee in its corporate communications.
But the wave of layoffs could have significant long-term consequences around upstate New York because our cities have been losing population while places like Austin, Seattle, San Jose and Miami have been booming. When people lose their jobs, they may not be here when our companies need them back. I remember talking with several upstate New Yorkers in the early '90s who had left their hometowns because their was no career opportunity for them.
"The most recent people who came to work are the ones that tend to be laid off, tend to be recent college graduates," Ullery said. "Fifteen, 20 years ago there was a surplus of people in the demographic of that age group. The baby boom has passed us by, and if we lay off the young people, the implications are that one decade or two decades ago these labor pools would be available to pull back in. Today they are not there. There are fewer employees available by virtue that the baby boom has passed us by; so if we fail to make the investment in the young people, we have really cooked our goose. If we go forward a couple of quarters and the economy heats up again, where are these businesses going to go to find people?"
When older workers lose their jobs, they have a tough time getting back into the work force and tend to make lifestyle decisions to drop out of the labor market, Ullery said.
Layoffs disrupt the sense of community or corporate culture a company has developed over the years, and that has a value that needs to be factored into the decision.
"If you're going to lay off people, you're choosing to throw away the investment you have made to this point. There's just not large enough field of people to employ right now with the demographic of young people being that much less than it was years ago."
And Ullery warns that the companies that begin rehiring first will get the best people.
MIKE HENDRICKS is editor of The Business Review. He can be reached at 437-9855 or mhendricks@bizjournals.com.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Creating a Learning Organization
Wanda Loskot shares this article on her website www.loska.com and it is reproduced here with her permission:
In the Fall of 1997 I received a sad news that my friend Lester Heath died. He was one of those few people who had a huge influence on my life. His philosophy shaped my thinking and my coaching to a great degree and I feel so fortunate that I met him.
He changed lives of many people. While still alive, he was in charge of a large company called Albany Ladder. Lester Heath was not only outstanding human being but also exceptionally effective businessman and in 1995 the Entrepreneur Magazine awarded him the title Entrepreneur of the Year.
Jim Ullery(then his vice president) a few years ago for my TV program. I'm sure that you too will benefit from his thinking.
When it comes to creating successful relationships in a workplace, Albany Ladder is on the leading edge. This starts with abandoning traditional rigid business approaches and implementing guidelines instead of policies. Budgeting processes and job descriptions are also more flexible at this company than anywhere else.
And meetings or training sessions? Training activities have included putting employees in costumes of Arab sheiks and on the edge of a steep mountain cliff, sending them on a white water raft trip, and using an extensive two days session to write one specific document. Every one of these experiences pushes people to the edge, mentally, physically, and spiritually, so that they could really take a closer look at their core values.
Lester Heath: It is important to separate these two meanings: learning and training - because there is a big difference. Our real objective is to create an environment where people are learning all the time regardless of whether training is going on or not. As a result they're constantly self-assessing: is this what I wanted to accomplish? What am I going to do now? What can I learn from this? How could I do it better? This is the essence of the continuous improvement in the organization.
Learning means also that the more we know - the more we know that we don't know. It opens whole new vistas and helps to discover things that we need to learn in the future.
Wanda Loskot: What was the hardest part in the process of becoming the learning organization?"
Jim Ullery: Accepting the truth. Sometimes the truth isn't what we want to hear. I believe people often shield the truth to make themselves feel good, because they are afraid what the truth really represents. There is this tendency to distort the truth in order to make the situation appear better instead of dealing with the truth.
It happened to us and we recognized very early in our process that the truth can be almost devastating. Once we took a real close look at what was working and what was not working, there were some really hurtful things we discovered. Things were not working although both of us thought they were working very well.
Wanda Loskot: Such as? Which things surprised you so much?
Jim Ullery: That we didn't listen. We thought that we worked really hard at listening, but people's perception was that we didn't listen."
Lester Heath: And the matter of our mission statement, too. These two things hit us the hardest."
Wanda Loskot: What about the mission statement?"
Lester Heath: We started our learning process back in 1981 with writing the mission statement, but we made a fundamental tactical error. The management wrote it and imposed it on the workers. And that was exactly how the workers viewed it. It was "Lester's Mission" and, although it was quite accurate as to what we might have wanted to accomplish, it did not serve as a tool to provide useful direction for the company.
Wanda Loskot: How did you change it?
Lester Heath: We have changed the mission several times since then. The major difference is the process used in creating it, not the concept or theory behind it. This time all co-workers came together and drafted a mission statement in which they all feel a sense of ownership.
Wanda Loskot: As a result, how do people's attitudes differ?
Lester Heath: Their level of intellectual engagement is higher. Their sense of purpose is greater. I think people are finding more meaning in the work, and the atmosphere is wonderful. There are days when it is absolutely electric to work in Albany Ladder.
We're not trying to create the environment where people think alike or experience the same things, but where they are free to probe the full depth of the human experience whatever that might be for them. What we are trying to accomplish is to set up a sense of purpose and a general direction for a company, some guidelines within which co-workers have to stay, a sound basis in training - both in skills and in perspective - and in context to the business. And then allowing people to make their own decisions, as long as they stay in the same general direction we want to go, inside these guidelines.
Wanda Loskot: You also share your training with people from outside your company.
Jim Ullery: We became a sort of laboratory helping people to create a learning environment in their organizations and develop a sense of purpose and direction not only for their organizations but also for their lives. But I must stress that we are practitioners, not theorists. We talk about what has worked for us. We share the principles and experiences that worked for us. Hopefully they might have an application in other people's lives or industries, so we encourage them to go and try it.
Much of our training can be experienced over and over again. The first time people listen and engage only at a certain level. Then we encourage them to come back to become a part of the experience at a later date, with a fresh awareness, with a new level of comprehension. Those who have gone more than once report dramatic new levels of awareness.
Lester Heath: I remember a workshop we did for a group of business executives in New Jersey. It was a group of cigar-smoking, Mercedes-driving stiff people who didn't know each other. At the end of the six hour seminar they were all hugging.
But the real learning is the individual's capacity for reflective thinking and self-assessment. This processing is the experience where the learning occurs. It is noticing things about yourself, about the group during the process and then afterwards reflecting on it and learning from it.
Please visit Jim Ullery at http://www.ullerymanagement.com (and now in addtion see www.energyseekers.com and www.LetsPlayThePiano.com) for more information about creating learning organization.
LOSKA.COM Wanda Loskot - Success Connection 150 Heron's Run, Suite #124 - Sarasota, FL 34232 - USA Phone (941) 342-4203 - Fax (240) 358-7445
Professional business coach, author & speaker specializing in Internet marketing. Business seminars, corporate training and one-on-one coaching for self-employed sales professionals and small business owners. wanda@loska.com
All materials Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 Wanda Loskot and Success Connection. All Rights Reserved. Do not reprint, or distribute without express written permission.
In the Fall of 1997 I received a sad news that my friend Lester Heath died. He was one of those few people who had a huge influence on my life. His philosophy shaped my thinking and my coaching to a great degree and I feel so fortunate that I met him.
He changed lives of many people. While still alive, he was in charge of a large company called Albany Ladder. Lester Heath was not only outstanding human being but also exceptionally effective businessman and in 1995 the Entrepreneur Magazine awarded him the title Entrepreneur of the Year.
Jim Ullery(then his vice president) a few years ago for my TV program. I'm sure that you too will benefit from his thinking.
When it comes to creating successful relationships in a workplace, Albany Ladder is on the leading edge. This starts with abandoning traditional rigid business approaches and implementing guidelines instead of policies. Budgeting processes and job descriptions are also more flexible at this company than anywhere else.
And meetings or training sessions? Training activities have included putting employees in costumes of Arab sheiks and on the edge of a steep mountain cliff, sending them on a white water raft trip, and using an extensive two days session to write one specific document. Every one of these experiences pushes people to the edge, mentally, physically, and spiritually, so that they could really take a closer look at their core values.
Lester Heath: It is important to separate these two meanings: learning and training - because there is a big difference. Our real objective is to create an environment where people are learning all the time regardless of whether training is going on or not. As a result they're constantly self-assessing: is this what I wanted to accomplish? What am I going to do now? What can I learn from this? How could I do it better? This is the essence of the continuous improvement in the organization.
Learning means also that the more we know - the more we know that we don't know. It opens whole new vistas and helps to discover things that we need to learn in the future.
Wanda Loskot: What was the hardest part in the process of becoming the learning organization?"
Jim Ullery: Accepting the truth. Sometimes the truth isn't what we want to hear. I believe people often shield the truth to make themselves feel good, because they are afraid what the truth really represents. There is this tendency to distort the truth in order to make the situation appear better instead of dealing with the truth.
It happened to us and we recognized very early in our process that the truth can be almost devastating. Once we took a real close look at what was working and what was not working, there were some really hurtful things we discovered. Things were not working although both of us thought they were working very well.
Wanda Loskot: Such as? Which things surprised you so much?
Jim Ullery: That we didn't listen. We thought that we worked really hard at listening, but people's perception was that we didn't listen."
Lester Heath: And the matter of our mission statement, too. These two things hit us the hardest."
Wanda Loskot: What about the mission statement?"
Lester Heath: We started our learning process back in 1981 with writing the mission statement, but we made a fundamental tactical error. The management wrote it and imposed it on the workers. And that was exactly how the workers viewed it. It was "Lester's Mission" and, although it was quite accurate as to what we might have wanted to accomplish, it did not serve as a tool to provide useful direction for the company.
Wanda Loskot: How did you change it?
Lester Heath: We have changed the mission several times since then. The major difference is the process used in creating it, not the concept or theory behind it. This time all co-workers came together and drafted a mission statement in which they all feel a sense of ownership.
Wanda Loskot: As a result, how do people's attitudes differ?
Lester Heath: Their level of intellectual engagement is higher. Their sense of purpose is greater. I think people are finding more meaning in the work, and the atmosphere is wonderful. There are days when it is absolutely electric to work in Albany Ladder.
We're not trying to create the environment where people think alike or experience the same things, but where they are free to probe the full depth of the human experience whatever that might be for them. What we are trying to accomplish is to set up a sense of purpose and a general direction for a company, some guidelines within which co-workers have to stay, a sound basis in training - both in skills and in perspective - and in context to the business. And then allowing people to make their own decisions, as long as they stay in the same general direction we want to go, inside these guidelines.
Wanda Loskot: You also share your training with people from outside your company.
Jim Ullery: We became a sort of laboratory helping people to create a learning environment in their organizations and develop a sense of purpose and direction not only for their organizations but also for their lives. But I must stress that we are practitioners, not theorists. We talk about what has worked for us. We share the principles and experiences that worked for us. Hopefully they might have an application in other people's lives or industries, so we encourage them to go and try it.
Much of our training can be experienced over and over again. The first time people listen and engage only at a certain level. Then we encourage them to come back to become a part of the experience at a later date, with a fresh awareness, with a new level of comprehension. Those who have gone more than once report dramatic new levels of awareness.
Lester Heath: I remember a workshop we did for a group of business executives in New Jersey. It was a group of cigar-smoking, Mercedes-driving stiff people who didn't know each other. At the end of the six hour seminar they were all hugging.
But the real learning is the individual's capacity for reflective thinking and self-assessment. This processing is the experience where the learning occurs. It is noticing things about yourself, about the group during the process and then afterwards reflecting on it and learning from it.
Please visit Jim Ullery at http://www.ullerymanagement.com (and now in addtion see www.energyseekers.com and www.LetsPlayThePiano.com) for more information about creating learning organization.
LOSKA.COM Wanda Loskot - Success Connection 150 Heron's Run, Suite #124 - Sarasota, FL 34232 - USA Phone (941) 342-4203 - Fax (240) 358-7445
Professional business coach, author & speaker specializing in Internet marketing. Business seminars, corporate training and one-on-one coaching for self-employed sales professionals and small business owners. wanda@loska.com
All materials Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 Wanda Loskot and Success Connection. All Rights Reserved. Do not reprint, or distribute without express written permission.
What Will Separate the Corporate Winners from the Losers?
A leading management consultant Hal Krause president of Crestcom International says there are three factors: number one, training; number two, training; and number three, training. You would think that all organizations and managers recognize the importance of training. But, they don’t. Why? I’ve found that managers and organizations fall prey to the five management myths.
THE FIVE MYTHS:
1.“Our people are experienced. They don’t need to be trained.”
2. "We tried it and it didn’t work.”
3. “Our organization (or department, or division) is too small.”
4. “We can’t afford it.”
5. “We don’t have time.”
Let’s take a look at each of these myths, starting with the organization or manager who says, “Our people don’t need to be trained. They are all old ‘pros’ who have years of experience.”
It is important to remember the tremendous difference between experience and competence. I am reminded of the small-town doctor who lamented to a friend, “You know I can’t believe how many of my patients have switched over to this young upstart who just moved to town. Why he just finished medical school, and I’ve been practicing medicine for 25 years.” The friend threw his arm around the doctor’s shoulder and said, “Doc, I don’t know quite how to break this to you, but more than a few people in town are wondering if you perhaps have one year of experience that you’ve been getting by on for the last 25 years.”
Think about it. Imagine a professional football coach saying, “Our people are all experienced, so we’re going to skip training camp this year. We don’t need it.” How do you think that team would stand up against the competition? How long do you think the coach would keep his job?
Ask yourself this question. Do you think that business is the same today as it was 20 years ago? Of course not. Business is changing. Management is changing. Successful organizations don’t do business the same today as they did five years ago, or 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago.
Let’s examine the second management myth, “We tried it, and it didn’t work.” I’ve heard executives say, “When Harley Hotshot came to town, we put half of our people through his training and they haven’t sold any more than the rest of the team.” There are two very important things to remember about training. Number one: training is not an event, it is a process. And number two: in order to be effective, training must be ongoing.
Training is a little like calisthenics. If you haven’t worked out for years, and you jump right into a heavy exercise program, you’re going to be uncomfortable. So whether you’re talking about training or calisthenics, if you do it occasionally you grow sore; if you do it regularly you grow strong.
Let’s look at the third management myth, “We’re too small.” It’s important to understand that training is equally important for organizations of all sizes. Consider this. If an organization has one hundred people, and if one person is not operating at maximum capacity, that’s one percent of the entire organization. On the other hand, if an organization has just two people, it may be easy to rationalize “We can’t justify training” … but, if one of those two people is not operating at maximum effectiveness, that’s 50 percent of the entire organization. So, training is equally important to organizations of all sizes.
The fourth management myth: “We can’t afford it.” This is a cop-out. If you think the cost of training is expensive, compare it with the cost of incompetence! In today’s service-oriented environment poorly trained staff will drive your customers right into the camp of your competition.
Number five. “We don’t have the time.” This myth is not only a cop-out. It’s also an exercise in self-deception. If you are like most executives, I’m sure you sometimes ask yourself, “Why is it we never have time to do it right, but always make time to do it over?” The manager who says, “We’re so busy we don’t have time for training” makes about as much sense as the woodcutter who says, “I’m so busy cutting down trees, I don’t have time to sharpen my ax.” Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I have three hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend the first two hours sharpening my ax.”
Now, let’s address a final point. How long should you continue training your staff?
Years ago a renowned motivational speaker was posed the following question by an executive, “How long do I need to keep training my people?” The speaker instinctively answered him with a follow-up question that cut right to the heart of the matter. He said, “How long do you want your people to keep improving?”
As the management consultant said, the three factors separating the business winners from the losers over the next ten years are: training, training and training.
THE FIVE MYTHS:
1.“Our people are experienced. They don’t need to be trained.”
2. "We tried it and it didn’t work.”
3. “Our organization (or department, or division) is too small.”
4. “We can’t afford it.”
5. “We don’t have time.”
Let’s take a look at each of these myths, starting with the organization or manager who says, “Our people don’t need to be trained. They are all old ‘pros’ who have years of experience.”
It is important to remember the tremendous difference between experience and competence. I am reminded of the small-town doctor who lamented to a friend, “You know I can’t believe how many of my patients have switched over to this young upstart who just moved to town. Why he just finished medical school, and I’ve been practicing medicine for 25 years.” The friend threw his arm around the doctor’s shoulder and said, “Doc, I don’t know quite how to break this to you, but more than a few people in town are wondering if you perhaps have one year of experience that you’ve been getting by on for the last 25 years.”
Think about it. Imagine a professional football coach saying, “Our people are all experienced, so we’re going to skip training camp this year. We don’t need it.” How do you think that team would stand up against the competition? How long do you think the coach would keep his job?
Ask yourself this question. Do you think that business is the same today as it was 20 years ago? Of course not. Business is changing. Management is changing. Successful organizations don’t do business the same today as they did five years ago, or 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago.
Let’s examine the second management myth, “We tried it, and it didn’t work.” I’ve heard executives say, “When Harley Hotshot came to town, we put half of our people through his training and they haven’t sold any more than the rest of the team.” There are two very important things to remember about training. Number one: training is not an event, it is a process. And number two: in order to be effective, training must be ongoing.
Training is a little like calisthenics. If you haven’t worked out for years, and you jump right into a heavy exercise program, you’re going to be uncomfortable. So whether you’re talking about training or calisthenics, if you do it occasionally you grow sore; if you do it regularly you grow strong.
Let’s look at the third management myth, “We’re too small.” It’s important to understand that training is equally important for organizations of all sizes. Consider this. If an organization has one hundred people, and if one person is not operating at maximum capacity, that’s one percent of the entire organization. On the other hand, if an organization has just two people, it may be easy to rationalize “We can’t justify training” … but, if one of those two people is not operating at maximum effectiveness, that’s 50 percent of the entire organization. So, training is equally important to organizations of all sizes.
The fourth management myth: “We can’t afford it.” This is a cop-out. If you think the cost of training is expensive, compare it with the cost of incompetence! In today’s service-oriented environment poorly trained staff will drive your customers right into the camp of your competition.
Number five. “We don’t have the time.” This myth is not only a cop-out. It’s also an exercise in self-deception. If you are like most executives, I’m sure you sometimes ask yourself, “Why is it we never have time to do it right, but always make time to do it over?” The manager who says, “We’re so busy we don’t have time for training” makes about as much sense as the woodcutter who says, “I’m so busy cutting down trees, I don’t have time to sharpen my ax.” Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I have three hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend the first two hours sharpening my ax.”
Now, let’s address a final point. How long should you continue training your staff?
Years ago a renowned motivational speaker was posed the following question by an executive, “How long do I need to keep training my people?” The speaker instinctively answered him with a follow-up question that cut right to the heart of the matter. He said, “How long do you want your people to keep improving?”
As the management consultant said, the three factors separating the business winners from the losers over the next ten years are: training, training and training.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Amazing Mail really is AMAZING
I am asked frequently about methods of getting my first appointment with clients. This is bound to be a topic that I will add a lot of ideas to in time. You will want to talk with Cynthia Garcia 1.877.740.1042 or cgarcia@amazingmail.com at Amazing Mail www.amazingmail.com for the details of her service. We love what they do for us. You can create a custom four - color postcard using this service as well as folders and mailing pieces that would rival the Fortune 500 companies advertising and marketing materials yet do the piece one at a time or in large number. Amazing Mail will even manage your mailing list and every postcard includes the cost of the postage. Check out their site and train a sample - I am sure you will not be disappointed. You can use this service to get a CEO's attention. I have taken the picture of a clients office with my digital camera and then produced a postcard of their facility and sent the card. It is rare that a CEO will rip up and throw away a picture of their own facility. Then just call and say that you are the one that sent a picture of the building - are you able to talk perhaps something will develop...
Professional Selling Skills
Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many postings to assist our students in their successful use of the PSS skills that you have begun to put into practice having attended our 3 day sales development program.
In each module it is my desire to share some insights to remind and to stimulate your application of the knowledge that you obtained in the 3 days that we spent together.
In the early 1990s Fortune magazine decided to do an article on selling. The question they set out to answer was:
Why were some people so good at selling while others so blatantly bad?
To find out the answer the writers interviewed 24 top sales performers across a broad spectrum of fields. Among those who were interviewed were financial advisors, insurance producers, executive recruiters and a wide variety of consultants and high-value services providers. Here is what they learned.
The one thing in common was, they all told stories. Lots of stories. Stories that demonstrated how others had successfully achieved results by using their services. Stories that preemptively addressed objections or concerns. Stories that made it easy for others to refer them to their friends and colleagues. Stories that built credibility and reduced skepticism.
So what is your marketing story?
In each module it is my desire to share some insights to remind and to stimulate your application of the knowledge that you obtained in the 3 days that we spent together.
In the early 1990s Fortune magazine decided to do an article on selling. The question they set out to answer was:
Why were some people so good at selling while others so blatantly bad?
To find out the answer the writers interviewed 24 top sales performers across a broad spectrum of fields. Among those who were interviewed were financial advisors, insurance producers, executive recruiters and a wide variety of consultants and high-value services providers. Here is what they learned.
- The most successful sales people sell without it ever being apparent that they are in fact, selling.
- There was nothing obvious or obnoxious about their presentation.
- No Trial Close, Ben Franklin close or Take Away closes.
- They sold, but they sold invisibly.
- Moreover the Fortune article concluded that the more you are marketing and selling high-value services the more important it is to be able to sell invisibly.
The one thing in common was, they all told stories. Lots of stories. Stories that demonstrated how others had successfully achieved results by using their services. Stories that preemptively addressed objections or concerns. Stories that made it easy for others to refer them to their friends and colleagues. Stories that built credibility and reduced skepticism.
So what is your marketing story?
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